Photography has always been a powerful tool of communication and has developed into an instrument of our everyday experience: Through photographs we are able to communicate quickly and easily with each other. As a medium of social interaction, photographic images are used as a handy alternative to language, supplementing or even replacing it. They transport us to sites and individuals, connecting the distant and the temporally remote. This far-reaching development is increasingly driven by the digitization of our everyday culture. Photography is both part of this process, and its most visible expression.

Photo-historical research can contribute important observations to this diagnosis of our own time. From the moment photographic images became a matter of public interest, they served as objects of circulation and social connection. Already by the middle of the 19th century photography had opened global routes of image-based economies, providing and distributing our interpretations of visible worlds. As commodities or gifts, they are traded and exchanged, distributed and collected. The proliferation of photographically based information and the trading of photographic objects constitute important aspects of social interaction in the early stages of globalization.

These observations are our point of departure for the course titled “Circulating Photographs: Materials, Practices, Institutions”. Our aim is to develop a focused, multi-disciplinary analysis of the photographic image as an object of circulation, especially over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries (up to 1950). In the context of photo-historical research it is common practice to ask about processes of production or reception. In contrast, by putting circulation modalities at the center of our interest, we would like to accentuate the importance of such interactions for the production of photographic meaning. Acts of transmission constitute an important framework for the semantics of photographic imagery. Thus, we are interested in the realm of photographs as a foundation and tool for social interaction and in the practices that lead to our current understanding of image exchange. The vernacular image and its everyday practices are as important as highly professional appropriations within the domain of the arts and sciences. We are particularly interested in strategies of networking that have been enabled, shaped, modified or rejected by photography.

Looking for historical conditions that enabled photographs to circulate requires a closer investigation of premises related to such interactions:

1. The material foundations of photography, i.e., its historically shifting concreteness in terms of production processes and technologies.
2. The ensemble of practices, i.e., the methods and channels that have been developed, cultivated and refined for the circulation of photographs.
3. The diversity of institutions that have been created or adapted to this purpose.

Examining the variety of connections between these aspects will provide a new understanding of photo-historical developments that lean on the idea of exchange within the domain of visual media. We are especially interested in practices and strategies that have been developed in photography’s pre-digital era and we ask whether, and how, they can be regarded as a foundation for current media practices of transmission and exchange. Such an interest stimulates a variety of questions:

–   What types of circulation can and should we distinguish?

–   How does the materiality of photographic images affect and shape their circulation? And how does the circulation of photographs have an impact on their materiality?

–   What differences are there in professional and private practices among the networks of circulation?

–   What kinds of channels have been developed and used for the circulation of photographs?

–   In what ways do modes of circulation differ – modes such as sending, exchanging, transferring, sharing, dissemination, dispersion, etc.? How do we perceive and evaluate these historical practices today, and vice versa, how does our current practice shed light on the meaning of past exchanges of photographs?

–   How can we conceptualize the difference between circulating photographs as original prints on the one hand, and circulating reproductions of them on the other?

–   How does the photographic picture become a social entity in the process of its circulation?

–   How is meaning produced and altered through processes of circulation?

–   How can we describe the ongoing media change of photography from the point of view of circulation?

–   What conclusions can be drawn by examining specific time periods regarding the processes of circulation?

–   What kind of media practices of transmission from previous periods of media history are still in use today?

The course is aimed at advanced M.A. students, Ph.D. candidates and recent post-docs in art history and related disciplines with a strong photo-historical component. The course will be held in English. During the course, all participants will present their current research project, which should exhibit a close connection to the course subject matter. The course is supplemented by visits to photographic archives in Rome.

The Bibliotheca Hertziana will offer lodging and reimburse half of the incurred travelling expenses. In addition, participants will receive a daily allowance.

Please send the following application materials as a single PDF-document to Fototeca@biblhertz.it (subject “Studienkurs”) by October 22 2018:

–   Abstract of proposed subject/case study

–   Brief CV

–   Brief summary of your master’s thesis, dissertation or postdoctoral project

–   Names and contact details of two references

For further information please contact: Fototeca@biblhertz.it

The course is organized and led by Tatjana Bartsch (Bibl. Hertziana, Rome), Maria Antonella Pelizzari (Hunter College, CUNY, New York), Johannes Röll (Bibl. Hertziana) and Steffen Siegel (Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen).

See more here: http://www.biblhertz.it/en/news/call-for-papers/

Circulating Photographs: Materials, Practices, Institutions

A photo-historical course organized by the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History), Rome, and the Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen

Rome, Bibliotheca Hertziana, March 18–22, 2019

Deadline: October 22, 2018

Cambridge University Press has just published Art and Modern Copyright: The Contested Image by Dr Elena Cooper. The book is the first in-depth study of the history of copyright protecting the visual arts, especially photography.

Exploring legal developments during an important period in the making of the modern law, the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, in relation to four themes – the protection of copyright ‘authors’ (painters, photographers and engravers), art collectors, sitters and the public interest. It uncovers a number of long-forgotten narratives of copyright history, including views of copyright that differ from how we think about copyright today. As well as considering the distinct nature of the contribution of copyright to the history of the cultural domain accounted for by scholars of art history and the sociology of art, Art and Modern Copyright examines the value to lawyers and policy-makers today of copyright history as a destabilising influence. In taking us to ways of thinking that differ from our own, history can sharpen the critical lens through which we view copyright debates today.

The book will be launched at an event at the Victorian Picture Galleryat Royal Holloway, University of London, at 6.15pm on Wednesday 5 December 2018, where Dr Cooper will draw on the rich collection of nineteenth century paintings in the Gallery to illustrate the central themes of her research.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Dr Cooper: elena.cooper@glasgow.ac.uk . Members are warmly invited to the launch and are entitled to a 20% discount on the purchase of a copy of the book (available for a limited time only). 

If you are interested in attending contact Dr Cooper: elena.cooper@glasgow.ac.uk .

A full review will be published shortly.

Starting from the analysis of the article ‘The Camera on Wheels’, which was published in the magazine Amateur Photographer in December 1885, Sara Dominici explores the relation between photography and cycling in late Victorian Britain. It looks, in particular, at how the confluence of new ways of moving and seeing influenced photographic practices. As contemporary accounts reveal, despite the significant difficulties of carrying fragile cameras on unstable machines, combining cycling and photography was incredibly popular: amongst the reasons was the possibility to reach a wider choice of locations, and thus subjects to photograph, and to do so in a way felt as entirely under one’s control.

The talk examines the profound influence that this had on how photographers thought of camera practices, leading to the desire for a camera apparatus that could benefit from the freedom and independence associated with their newly embraced mobility, as suggested in the title itself ‘The Camera on Wheels’.

‘The Camera on Wheels’: the Emergence of New Mobile Practices of Vision in Late Victorian Britain
08 Nov 2018, 17:30 to 08 Nov 2018, 19:30
IHR Peter Marshall Room, N204, Second Floor, IHR, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Lund Humphries presents the latest volume in its series of Handbooks in International Art Business, an essential guide to the development of photography as an art form and how to navigate this growing market. Photography and the Art Market charts the transition of photographs created for aesthetic ends from a hobbyist pastime to a core component of the international fine art scene.

This essential handbook explores the structural elements that supported this shift (including dedicated galleries, museum and private collections, festivals, fairs and academic scholarship), most of which have come into being within the last 50 years, and appraises the state of the market for photography today.

The first part of this essential handbook provides an art-business analysis of the market for art photography and explains how to navigate it; the second is an art historical account of the evolution of art photography. In tracing the emergence of a robust art-world sub-system for art photography, sustaining both significant art-world presence and strong trade, the book shows the solid foundations on which today’s international market is built, examines how that market is evolving,
and points to future developments.

This pioneering handbook is a must-read for scholars, students, curators, dealers, photographers, private collectors and institutional buyers, and other arts professionals. 

Photography and the Art Market
Juliet Hacking
ISBN 978-1-84822-148-2
256 pages
£30.

This autumn, London's Photographers' Gallery will be running a series of events focused on the particulars of collecting photography and understanding its position in the wider art market today. Offering top tips and guidance from a range of industry experts, we will provide insider’s advice on how the photography market works and how to begin a collection.

Image: Churchgate Station, Bombay, India, 1995, from Migrations © Sebastiao Salgado/Amazonas, Courtesy of NB Pictures

Marie-Angélique Languille et Céline Daher have announced that the videos of the conference French paper negatives: production, characterization, preservation which took place from 7-8 December 2017 have been uploaded here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd9EOqTTdlIr0EMJPfh4oH5slFO8eQKC6

This was an important conference with a range of speakers, delivering papers in English and French on a range of subjects dealing with French paper negatives. 

Newly discovered albums from the National Science and Media Museum collection form part of a new exhibition at the Science Museum The Last Tsar: Blood and Revolution. Investigating the role of science in the lives and deaths of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, this exhibition takes visitors behind the scenes of one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. 

Set against a turbulent backdrop of social upheaval and war between 1900 and 1918, The Last Tsar: Blood and Revolution will explore the significant influence of medicine on the private lives of the imperial family during this period and the advances in medicine and forensic science over 70 years later that transformed the investigation into their sudden disappearance.

Rare artefacts, including the family’s personal diaries, private possessions and jewellery found at the scene of their murder, and two Imperial Fabergé Easter Eggs presented by the Tsar to his wife just a year before the fall of the imperial house, will help bring the personal lives of autocrat Nicholas II and his family to life.

For the first time, photograph albums created by an English tutor to the Tsar’s nephews, and now part of the Science Museum Group collection, will be on public display, providing a fascinating glimpse into the daily lives of the Romanov family.  The albums were found by chance by curator Natalia Sidlina, when she unearthed them when searching for Russia-related material held at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford for the 2015 Cosmonauts exhibition. Among the items brought up by the museum’s curators was a crate containing 22 albums, the Romanov albums.

From the treatment of their only son and heir Alexei’s life-threatening haemophilia B, a rare blood condition and infamous ‘royal disease’ passed down from Queen Victoria, to the Tsarina’s fertility and the Red Cross medical training of the Tsar’s daughters, this exhibition will explore the imperial family’s contrasting reliance on both the latest medical discoveries of the time as well as traditional and spiritual healers. The family’s determination to keep Alexei’s illness a secret compelled them to take controversial measures that ultimately contributed to the fall of the 300-year-old dynasty. 

Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum, said:

“This exhibition marks 100 years since the end of the Romanov dynasty and explores one of the most dramatic periods in Russian history, all through the unique lens of science. Our curatorial team have brought together an exceptional, rare and poignant collection to tell this remarkable story. I want to thank all our lenders in the UK, Russia and America for making this exhibition possible.” 

The investigation into the disappearance of Tsar Nicholas II, his family and entourage following the revolutions of 1917, started in July 1918 and the case remains open today. One hundred years later, this exhibition will take visitors behind the scenes to uncover the science behind the investigation into one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.  

Visitors will be able to examine evidence from the scene of the execution – from the dentures of the imperial physician, a single diamond earring belonging to the Tsarina, to a chandelier from the house where the family were executed – and delve into the remarkable modern forensic investigation which set out to piece together the events of that night. 

This investigation was one of the first occasions that forensic DNA analysis was used to solve a historic case, involving the best British experts under the direction of Dr Peter Gill from the Forensic Science Service.  Blood samples from relatives and advances in DNA profiling and 3D reconstruction helped to positively identify the remains of the imperial family and enabled the investigation to reach convincing conclusions. 

The Last Tsar: Blood and Revolution
21 September 2018 – 24 March 2019
Free, ticketed
sciencemuseum.org.uk/thelasttsar
@ScienceMuseum 
#thelasttsar

For further information and to book free tickets visit the Science Museum website.

Image: top: The tsar and his family at Gatchina Palace, outside St Petersburg, around 1915. Photograph: The Science Museum Group Collection; Bottom: Radiograph of Emperor Nicholas II. Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A Countway Library of Medicine. 

This new book is not just a dating guide to old photographs, but is also a celebration of Somerset’s photographic history, as seen through the lives and work of nearly 800 photographers. It will appeal to family, local, social and photographic historians, including collectors, as a reliable and indispensable reference source on the subject.

The accompanying DVD contains more than 1,500 images and mini-biographies of each of the photographers. All three authors have experience in local history research and are keen photographic collectors.

The book is available from 28 September and orders will be processed by the publishers, the Somerset & Dorset Family History Society via its online shop  http://shop.sdfhs.org/, It is also available to order from booksellers.

Secure the shadow. Somerset photographers 1839 – 1939
Robin Ansell, Allan Collier and Phil Nichols
Somerset and Dorset Family History Society, 2018. 

The death of Bill Buchanan deprives the history of photography of one of the key figures in the rise of interest in the subject over the last sixty years.

William Menzies Buchanan was born in Trinidad in 1932. He studied at Glasgow School of Art and then taught in Glasgow schools for five years before joining the Scottish Arts Council in 1961. It was while he was there as Exhibitions Officer, and later, Art Director, that, with Katherine Michaelson of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, he organised the 1970 revelatory exhibition of the calotypes of Hill and Adamson. For it, he managed to persuade the Free Church of Scotland to lend Hill’s mammoth ‘Disruption’ painting, something no one had achieved before.

In 1977 he returned to the Glasgow School of Art, first as head of Fine Art and latterly as Deputy Head, retiring in 1992. It was during that period that his interest in photography, in addition to other art forms, manifested itself with considerable effect. As well as contributing to numerous magazines and other publications, including The Golden Age of British Photography, The Photographic Collector, The History of Photography, British Photography in the Nineteenth Century, Photography 1900, Studies in Photography, and many more, he was Chairman of Stills Gallery from 1987 to 1992.

In March 1983, there was a conference in Glasgow called ‘Scottish Contributions to Photography’. Nowadays, that might not attract a huge amount of attention, but this one was a ground-breaking international symposium and in its three days it reached well beyond Scotland, as the list of the participants demonstrate. In addition to the list of locally based speakers – Thomas Joshua Cooper, Sara Stevenson, Murray Johnston, Alison Morrison-Low, Ray McKenzie, Robert Smart and David Bruce – there was what amounted to a roster of the most important photo-historians of the time – Mike Weaver, Larry Schaaf, Stanley Triggs, William Stapp, Margaret Harker, John Hannavy, and Roger Taylor.

There was one other speaker: Bill Buchanan, on his favourite subject, the ‘most versatile and artistic’ James Craig Annan, but Bill’s contribution was much more than that; in fact the whole event was largely his devising and its legacy is still with us. In his room in the now devastated Glasgow School of Art was born the idea that became the Scottish Society for the History of Photography whose publication, ‘Studies in Photography’, remains a leader in its field.

Bill Buchanan’s influence, and his highly significant role in encouraging the development of interest in the history of photography, at both academic and popular levels, deserve to be recognised. That would probably embarrass an essentially modest, private, sort of man, but it would be entirely justified.

Images:

Top: Mike Graham, Bill Buchanan
Lower: Sean Hudson, L to R: David Bruce, Roger Taylor, Sara Stevenson, Will Stapp, Margaret Harker, Mike Weaver, Larry Schaaf, Ialeen Gibson Cowan, John Hannavy, Alison Morrison-Low, Bill Buchanan, Ray Mckenzie.

Photography is under the spotlight as the V&A Museum prepares for the 12 October opening of its new Photography Centre which unites - and shows to the public - the V&A and RPS collections. The Photography Spotlight celebrates the Centre, home to the national collection of the art of photography and shows a dynamic series of talks, workshops and special events, including an international two-day conference.

Find our more here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/season/2018/photography-spotlight

Tate Modern has announced the appointment of Dr Yasufumi Nakamori as its new Senior Curator, International Art (Photography). Nakamori will lead on the development of Tate’s collection of photography and on the programme of photography exhibitions and displays. He will take up the post in October 2018. He replaces Simon Baker who has moved to  the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. (See: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tate-modern-s-simon-baker-leaves-for-paris).

For the past two years, Nakamori headed the department of photography and new media at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, developing new displays of photography and time-based media within the context of a global encyclopaedic art museum, including staging exhibitions with Leslie Hewitt, The Propeller Group, Omer Fast, Naoya Hatakeyama and most recently Amar Kanwar. He was also responsible for numerous key acquisitions which transformed and diversified the museum’s photography collection.

He previously served as curator of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from 2008 to 2016, creating ground-breaking exhibitions such as Katsura: Picturing Modernism in Japanese Architecture, Photographs by Ishimoto Yasuhiro (a recipient of the 2011 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for Smaller Museums), and For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968-1979. As a noted scholar of Japanese art and architecture, Nakamori has contributed to numerous exhibition catalogues and has taught graduate seminars at Hunter College and Rice University. He is a 2016 fellow of the Getty Leadership Institute, holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin, an MA in Contemporary Art from Hunter College, the City University of New York, and a PhD in the History of Art and Visual Studies from Cornell University.

Nakamori’s appointment continues Tate’s commitment to collecting and exhibiting photography. This reflects the pivotal role photography has played in the story of modern art as well as its ever-greater importance in visual culture today. The number of photographs in Tate’s collection has increased five-fold over the past decade and there have been a host of acclaimed photography exhibitions staged across the four Tate galleries, including Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art currently open at Tate Modern.

Image: Yasufumi Nakamori. Photograph by Dan Dennehy, Minneapolis Institute of Art

Gray Levett is researching London's camera shops for a future feature in Nikon Owner magazine and is looking for photographs of the exterior of the Fox Talbot shop which stood at 179 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1.

If you can help please post the image here and get in touch with Gray on 020 7828 4925 or email: gray@graysofwestminster.co.uk

John Vickers was a theatre photographer of note from the 1930s onwards. A comprehensive archive of documents following Vickers’ career throughout the 1940s and 1950s compliments the London Old Vic collection which is also held at the University of Bristol. Included in the collection are glass plate negatives, prints, framed items,correspondence and ephemera.

John Vickers began his career by working as assistant to photographer Angus McBean in the 1930s, himself a famous name in the world of theatrical photography. From 1939 until the time of his death, he ran his own studio. After the war Vickers made a name for himself and became well known as a theatre photographer. He worked for many London theatres including, most famously the Old Vic. 

He photographed over 1,000 productions and his portraits of actors (such as Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier), writers and musicians gained him a high reputation.

Throughout his photography the influence of Angus McBean can easily be seen, especially in some of his early, more surrealist work.

The legacy of John Vickers can be seen to continue with the photography of Mario Testino, who was his assistant in the 1970s until his death.

What the collection holds

In photographic terms the archive comprises c. 8,000 prints, 20,000 glass plate negatives, 20,000 roll film negatives, and 1,800 colour slides. In addition there are 25 boxes of manuscript material, including articles, teaching manuals, monographs, correspondence (business and personal), journals, card indexes, business papers, covering the whole working life of Vickers. There is also a library of photographic and theatre related material.

The online catalogue for this collection can be viewed here: JV - The John Vickers Archive.

Shirley Baker started to photograph the streets of Manchester and Salford in the early 1960s when homes were being demolished and communities were being uprooted. 'Whole streets were disappearing and I hoped to capture some trace of everyday life of the people who lived there. I was particularly interested in the more mundane, even trivial, aspects of life that were not being recorded by anyone else.'

Shirley’s powerful images, sparked by her curiosity, recorded people and communities involved in fundamental change. People’s homes were demolished as part of a huge ‘slum’ clearance programme, however Shirley was able to capture some of the street life as it had been for generations before the change. The areas have been redeveloped to form a new and totally different environment. As Shirley once said, 'I hope by bridging time through the magic of photography, a connection has been made with a past that should not be forgotten'.

Shirley Baker
Without a Trace: Manchester and Salford in the 1960s
The History Press, September 2018
£20, hard cased
buy here: https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/without-a-trace/9780750988988/

The Centre for Image Research and Diffusion (CRDI) of Girona City Council has created a new web resource focused on the studio portrait. It is a comparative view of this photographic practice with a selection of 10 images for each decade.

See the website here: https://www.girona.cat/sgdap/retrats/cat/index_eng.php

The first exhibition dedicated to leading dog photographer Thomas Fall opens at the Kennel Club Art Gallery on 12 September. The collection, which is the largest historical dog photography archive in the world, will be on display for dog lovers and art enthusiasts alike.

The exhibition, ‘Promoting the Pedigree through Photography: Thomas Fall’, runs from 12 September 2018 to 29 March 2019 in partnership with the Mary Evans Picture Library. It will chart the visual progression of British pedigree dogs through the Thomas Fall rare photographic records. The exhibition will include two personal photographic items (circa 1890) by Thomas Fall loaned by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection.  

Thomas Fall is a name which was and still is synonymous with the highest quality pedigree and champion dog photographs for over a century and comprises important dog photographs from 1875 through to 1990. He was a member of the Royal Photographic Society and exhibition showcases photographic works and archive collectables from all four ‘Thomas Falls’: the original Thomas Fall (b1833-1900) and those who bought and continued the collection after him: Edward Hitchings Parker, Barbara Burrows and Mary Evans Picture Library.

Amongst the rare items on display from the collection will be trademark stamps and handwritten photographic notes relating to commercial products and books, antique cameras, photographs and contextual information regarding the Thomas Fall business enterprise are featured.

The displays are accompanied by a comprehensive exhibition catalogue (available for purchase), which includes further images and information on the history and progression of the Thomas Fall business over the last century. 

The Kennel Club Art Gallery, based in Mayfair, is open to all and free to visit by appointment. Visiting hours are Monday to Friday 9.30am-4.30pm. To book an appointment please contact the Kennel Club Art Gallery on 020 7518 1064 or email artgallery@thekennelclub.org.uk

Images: © Thomas Fall / Mary Evans Picture Library 

Now home to financial heavyweights and epic skyscapers, the Isle of Dogs was once the beating heart of industrial East London. In the early ’80s Mike Seaborne began documenting the area’s social fabric, taking his camera around the streets and inside remaining working factories and businesses.

These photographs, taken between 1982 and 1987, show the island on the cusp of huge development. We see first sightings of the Docklands Light Railway construction from Tower Gateway to Island Gardens, workers in (now demolished) factories on their tea breaks, children paddling in the Thames. Seaborne captured the spirit of a close-knit community, one that soon changed forever when the big money moved in.

Mike Seaborne has been photographing London since 1979. He was Senior Curator of Photographs at the Museum of London until 2011 and now focuses on personal photographic projects.

Hoxton Mini Press is a small but award-winning independent publisher making beautiful, collectable photography books about London and beyond.

The Isle of Dogs: Before the big money
By Mike Seaborne, with an introduction by Ken Worpole
Published 11 October 2018 by
Hoxton Mini Press, £17.95
Book 2 in the series ‘Vintage Britain’,
Hardback, 162mm x 202mm, 192pp
ISBN: 978-1-910566-39-8

To buy a copy click here: https://www.hoxtonminipress.com/collections/books/products/the-isle-of-dogs

A new website explores the history of Polyfoto which began as a chain of high street photography studios in the United Kingdom and is best known for its sheets of multiple-pose images. The website has pull out a call for people's own Polyfoto images. 

See: http://www.polyfoto.co.uk/

Rose Teanby's excellent research work looking at early British women photographers continues to grow.  The most recent post is on Lady Emily Payne-Gallwey (sic) who joined the Photographic Society in 1853, it's inaugural year. The other photographers so far in the series are: Mary Ann Boulton, Elizabeth Stockdale WIlkinson, Jessie Mann, Elizabeth Vignoles, Caroline Taylor, Jane Nina Wigley, Catherine Verschoyle, Frances Monteith, 

Rose will be a speaker at the Anna Atkins conference at the New York Public Library in October.

See more here: https://roseteanbyphotography.co.uk/early-women-photographers/

Image: D O Hill and RObert Admason, ‘Unknown Woman 15’, 1843-7, probably photographer Jessie Mann. 
Scottish National Portrait Gallery (PGP HA 2442)

The recent departure of Michael Terwey as Head of Collections and Exhibitions at the National Science and Media Museum has provided an opportunity for the museum to re-thionk itts senior management, with a new role, Head Curator, recently advertised.

Across Science Museum Group, our curatorial team are committed to inspiring futures by sustaining and growing our world-class collection and delivering a creative and bold programme of outputs including exhibitions, galleries, events and online narratives.

To truly lead our curatorial department, build our research profile, develop our collections and deliver content for an ambitious ‘masterplan’, we are looking for a Head Curator to join us at the National Science and Media Museum (NSMM), in Bradford, on a permanent basis.

In this role, you will champion your team to realise our ambitions to collect more contemporary materials, developing and maintaining our collections and creating innovative ways to engage our visitors. You will also be a senior leader at NSMM, communicating our vision to stakeholders, promoting a culture of high performance and encouraging collaborative practice, as well as raising our museums profile and expanding our networks.

Joining us, you will use your significant experience of curating collections and communicating stories in unique ways. Having experience of team leadership and skills at strategically managing budgets you will be passionate about working collaboratively, bringing a well-established network to advocate for best practice and sharing knowledge to develop our collections.

You will be offered excellent benefits including 27 days annual leave in addition to 8 bank holidays, the ability to join our pension scheme, BUPA medical and dental healthcare and an interest free loan offer whilst developing your career in a world class museum group.

For further information please see the SMG website here.