To map and investigate this shift in the place of performance in relation to art museums Tate launched in 2014 a two-year major research project in partnership with the University of Exeter with the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project set out to trace the evolving nature of performance practices since the 1960s, as seen through Tate’s own history.
Now published on Tate’s website, Performance at Tate: Into the Space of Art is a multi-layered exploration of the place of performance art and performativity in the museum. The lead essay by Jonah Westerman argues against seeing performance as a medium or genre and urges that it should be understood instead as an interrelated set of questions about how art relates to its audiences and the wider social world. The publication also provides many detailed case studies of individual art works and events, together with an interactive timeline. Bringing together previously little known audio, films and videos, photographs, and museum documents drawn from Tate’s Archive, the project reveals the richness and depth of the gallery’s engagement with performance over five decades, offering new insights into the museum’s role in framing and interpreting performance.
Academic Advisory Board
Claire Bishop, Professor, Contemporary Art, CUNY Graduate Center, New York
Adrian Heathfield, Professor of Performance and Visual Culture, University of Roehampton, London
Katja Kwastek, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Professor Ross Parry, Associate Professor, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester
Research team
Acatia Finbow, Collaborative Doctoral Student, University of Exeter and Tate
Gabriella Giannachi, Professor in Performance and New Media, University of Exeter
Jennifer Mundy, Head of Collection Research, Tate
Jonah Westerman, AHRC Research Associate, Tate (now Fellow, Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Catherine Wood, Senior Curator, International Art (Performance), Tate
Performance at Tate: Into the Space of Art is one of an ongoing series of online major research publications that aim to throw fresh light onto the art and artists represented in Tate’s collection.
Jonah Westerman, 'The Dimensions of Performance', Performance at Tate: Into the Space of Art, Tate Research Publication, 2016, http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/performance-at-tate/dimensions-of-performance, accessed 21 February 2017.
Jonah Westerman, 'Project overview', Performance at Tate: Into the Space of Art, Tate Research Publication, 2016, http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/performance-at-tate/project-overview, accessed 21 February 2017.
Other recent publications include Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity, The Art of the Sublime and the ongoing series of In Focus projects.
For more details of Tate’s research programme see www.tate.org.uk/research and follow @TateResearch.
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