73. PRACTICE as research: intersectional methods responding to art history and collections

This session will bring together papers and a workshop that discusses creative practice as a methodological tool for new research into existing art historical collections and institutions in accessible and critical ways. Artistic practice can democratise and explore the intersectionality of collections through multiple lenses, including but not limited to: auto-ethnographic practices, gender-based intervention, anti-colonial and decolonial approaches, and queering the archive. Researchers and practitioners will be invited to discuss how creative practices allow audiences to understand collections that are burdened by colonialist and capitalist histories, as well as methods of reimagining access to collections to those that find them inaccessible – for example, due to social class and/or disabilities.

Creative practitioners are often brought into institutions via curatorial and community engagement programming with aims asking them to democratise institutional spaces, add more diverse and missing voices, and encourage wider participation and enquiry. What are the legacies of these creative interventions? How can contemporary artistic practice activate spaces and/or collections? What is the legacy of this making? How can practice as research be utilised not only by creative practitioners but also other roles within heritage and art history-based institutions? How is this new knowledge shared and applied?

To further discuss the importance of creative practice when exploring art history, this hybrid session will start with papers and culminate in a collaborative creative workshop. This workshop will provide the attendees with opportunities to experiment with practice-based research methods that encourage the synthesis of new knowledge within the sector.

Themes: Practice as Research, intersectionality, creative practice

Additional format comment: Session papers will be followed by a collaborative creative workshop bringing together forms of Practice as Research discussed in those papers.

Lead Convenor: Polly Rayner-Woodrow, University of Plymouth and The Box Plymouth, United Kingdom

Co-convenors: Cam Alexandra Williamson, University of Plymouth/Freelance artist, United Kingdom

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.