The Arts and Humanities Research Council is sponsoring a major conference taking place today which brings together top executives from media and digital media organisations along with museum curators and arts and humanities academics.
The purpose of the conference is to consider how digital media can facilitate better links between research work in the visual arts, the media and the general public.

Conference delegates include Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC who will be delivering a speech, as well as representatives from the Tate, The British Museum, Wikipedia, The National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts, Museums and Galleries of Scotland, and the Universities of London, Oxford and Glasgow.

The conference, which is being hosted by St Catherine’s College at the University of Oxford, is also the formal British launch of a recently formed partnership between the AHRC and the US organisation, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The partnership between the two organisations was originally forged in late 2008 when, during visit to the Unites states, the AHRC’s Professor Shearer West and Dr Bruce Cole of the NEH signed a memorandum of understanding to foster scholarly collaboration and research in the humanities.

Thomas Phelps, Director of Public Programmes at the NEH is representing the organisation during the UK visit, and both he and Professor West will address the conference by delivering the opening speeches.

Professor West says, “The purpose of the conference is to formalise the partnership between the AHRC and the NEH but also to consider the innovative potential of digital media to enhance public engagement with research, visual culture and their own local art collections.”

Ends

Notes to the editor

About Arts and Humanities Research Council ‐ Each year the AHRC provides approximately £102 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. Arts and humanities researchers constitute over a quarter of all research‐active staff in the higher education sector. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.