Culture& secures funding for research project

Black-led independent arts and education charity Culture& has been awarded £500,000 by global health foundation Wellcome for a research project related to museums and medical science, practice and policy.

Culture& is collaborating with the Ethox Centre at the University of Oxford on the project, which is part of a wider research initiative to “develop new concepts, methods and tools that address issues of conflicting values in society, including real-time digital mapping of value disagreements and facilitating engagement with excluded voices and problems”.

The University of Oxford project is called the Discovery Research Platform for Transformative Inclusivity in Ethics and Humanities Research (Antitheses).

Culture&’s artistic director Errol Francis said: “This is a major milestone for Culture& and we are looking forward to working with the research team. Through a series of experiments in collaboration with heritage partners, Culture& aims to address current conflicts around four crucial ethical challenges facing museums.”

The four questions being explored are:

• Is it any longer acceptable and what are the alternatives to killing animals so we can look at and study them in museums?
• Under what circumstances can human remains be displayed in museums and, if so, what kind of consents and ethical frameworks should be in place?
• What role could replicas, physical or digital, play in the restitution of disputed and stolen heritage?
• What should ethical due diligence look like for the funding and sponsorship of museums?

The grant for the research being carried out by Culture& and the University of Oxford is part of a wider £73m Wellcome programme to address a range of practical, technological and methodological barriers holding up progress across a range of different fields. This involves eight research projects at universities, including the University of Oxford research platform.

Culture& has been working for more than 30 years to develop initiatives that open up and promote diversity in the workforce and with audiences. Its flagship programme is the New Museum School Advanced Programme, which is delivered in collaboration with the University of Leicester School of Museum Studies. This programme provides 30 funded studentships from 2021-2024 that enable young arts professionals to gain postgraduate qualifications with the aim of supporting their progression within their organisations.