Ruskin Museum and Research Institute

Description

The Ruskin Research Institute, based in the Museum, was launched in March 2019, following the purchase of the Collection, generously funded by the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Friends of the National Libraries, Art Fund and others. From art history to artificial intelligence, the Research Institute generates new perspectives on Ruskin’s works and legacy. Centered in the Collection, its research contributes new knowledge and understanding of the challenges of today and tomorrow.

The Ruskin Museum and Research Institute is home to the leading collection of works by the epoch-defining writer, artist and social thinker John Ruskin (1819-1900). From the iconic building at the gateway to Lancaster University and from Brantwood, Ruskin’s home at Coniston, the Institute combines research, teaching and learning and enterprise, both within and beyond academia. The Institute's partners value it for interdisciplinary research based in its unique collections combined with access to Lancaster University’s world-leading practice in digital humanities, data, environmental and material science.

As with other research institutes based in accredited university museums, the hallmark of The Ruskin’s Research Institute is research produced through the Collection and across interdisciplinary research fields thematically linked to the collection. Ruskin was a polymath. The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection embraces art, architecture, and the environment but much more. There are over 15,000 items in the collection, along with a library including Ruskin’s own collection and a complete repository of critical writing on Ruskin. Paintings and drawings, photographs and daguerreotypes, letters, manuscripts and books are displayed at The Ruskin and at Brantwood, Ruskin’s former home in the Lake District. In 2019, after an absence of nearly a century, Ruskin’s personal collection of over 2,000 museum-quality mineral specimens returned to Brantwood as part of the museum’s collection.

The Institute works with academics across all stages of their careers to support collaborative research projects; research students and research fellows (internal and external, from early-career to emeritus) and research residencies, in partnership with practitioners, policymakers, public and private sector organisations. Since its inception in 2017 and launch in 2019, the Institute has raised more the £8m and has played an ever more crucial role in Lancaster University’s mission to ‘become a globally significant university, driven by research, teaching and learning that engages locally and internationally on the issues and debates of the day and future.’

Rooted in the local and regional communities, the Institute is integrated with The Ruskin’s international public-facing programme, producing ‘live’ research through exhibitions, events, publications, engagement and digital activities.

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

2019

Contact details

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University affiliation(s)

Lancaster University
Lancaster