Art History & Design’s vision is to be a creative force for transformational cultural, economic, ecological and social change, through multi-disciplinary perspectives on making and creating of past, present and future material and visual cultures.

Art and Design research at The Open University includes academics from the Art History Department and the Design Group. The successful joint submission to REF2014 has been strengthened through new cross-disciplinary initiatives that reflect transitions in the subject fields of art history and design research (in movement away from chronological divisions and thematic groupings, towards challenge-led research).

Organised as a centre of excellence, art historians and design researchers contribute to the development of their own disciplines as well as collaborate with other subject fields across the university and beyond.

Design

Design at the OU is unencumbered by disciplinary silos and is understood as an expanded field that enables social change, as well as creating places, products and services for consumers and publics. Design at OU has been foundational connections with the Design Research Society and the journal Design Studies, which influence future directions of the discipline.

Highly ranked in previous research assessments: 4th RAE 2008, 5th RAE 2001, 5th RAE 1996 and 4th RAE 1992.

Art History

Art History at the OU is similarly progressive in its advocacy for the democratisation of the discipline. In addition to its commitment to widening participation, it provides critical reflection and theoretical contributions on global and transcultural perspectives.

Highly ranked in previous research assessments.

Research excellence

In REF2014 for Art and Design History, Practice and Theory, OU research in Art History and Design ranked 6th in the UK for its proportion of 4* and 3* research, with over 80 % assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent.

We receive funding from a variety of institutions including: the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Innovate UK, European Research Council (ERC), the British Academy, the British Council, the Leverhulme Trust and the Paul Mellon Centre, EUFP7, Western Power distribution.

PhD research training in Art History and Design continues to be key to the development new generations of design and art history researchers through our doctoral training centres: AHRC Design Star consortia, CHASE (consortium for the humanities and the arts south east England), Doctoral Training Partnership, OOC (OU, Oxford, Cambridge)

Impact

Art History and Design’s research is routinely conducted with non-academic partners in co-design and co-production collaborative arrangements. Art History and Design’s challenge-led research makes direct connections with the publics that engage in each project. Our impact is underpinned by our research strengths in diversity in education and changes to learning, community engagement and designing future urban environments. Some examples include:

Open Arts Objects

(OAO) brings together a team of Art Historians at the OU (Clark et al.), who have pioneered a new expanded, global and object-centred approach to art history, which challenges traditional perceptions of the discipline as elitist and Eurocentric.

Empowering Design Practices

Involved research on place-based innovation with communities across the UK (13 AHRC funded projects), has enabled disenfranchised groups to become co-designers of their local environment and effective agents of change (Alexiou, Zamenopoulos).

Designing sustainable urban innovations

Central to a series of practical application trials in Milton Keynes for the design of sustainable urban transport infrastructures (Potter, Cook).

Collaborations, outreach and engagement

AH&D regenerates and develops art and design research through its involvement on and through the dissemination of research with particular strength in impactful research, public outreach and engagement, often through innovative digital initiatives.

Resonating with the University’s social justice mission, these engagements enhance the intellectual rigour of research, draw attention to the relevance of AH&D in twenty-first century society, and continue to play an active part in shaping AH&D future agendas.