Undertaken under the ‘Exchange’ strand of our research project, our mapping of the contemporary art in heritage field built on a previous audit carried out by Arts&Heritage in 2013. Our research updated this material to generate a new map of the field, capturing information on the content and distribution of the projects created, and the network of sites, artists, curators and organisations involved in their production. 

Google Map

One objective of this research strand was to build a publicly available Google Map of contemporary art in heritage activity, focusing on temporary site-specific artworks that fit within the broad category of visual arts practice. In February 2018 we launched an Open Call to the UK arts sector asking for contributions to our mapping of the field. 56 artists, curators and arts organisations responded with new information about 86 contemporary art in heritage projects. Locations ranged from historic houses, gardens and parklands, to industrial heritage sites, churches, defensive structures and rural heritage buildings. MCAHE worked with this information and our broader research activity to draw up a picture of the historical trajectory and current scope of this field which is represented in a Google Map plotting 389 UK projects from 1990-2018. The Map allows you to explore the different projects by toggling between the decades or by clicking on the location pins. The Map was created for us by Newcastle-based company TAC design.

We hope you enjoy using our Google Map!

Publications

Our Mapping activity also fed into a number of other research outputs, including a forthcoming book chapter and a series of journal articles.