The research unit studies the past and present within architecture, design and urban culture with the focus on the history and theory of the 20th century architecture and the city. Emphasis is placed on architecture and spatial design as creative practices as well as a social and cultural phenomenon.
The Strategic Museum or Strategic Cultural Communication. The research group focuses on strategic communication for museums and other cultural institutions. Within the cultural world there is a lot of talk about mediation but less about the communication of which the communication is an expression. Therefore, we will use cases and theory to examine how cultural organisations are supported in using communication as a strategic tool internally as well as in collaboration with and towards external stakeholders.
This research group studies the processes of mediation and meaning formation when the art and culture of museums and collections are digitally analysed and documented. The group is affiliated with SMK Open, the National Gallery of Denmark's digital initiative.
The research unit deals with learning partnerships between cultural institutions and educational institutions, with a focus on theory and methods that make it possible to investigate and analyse the learning and practice that arises at the interface between the two types of institution. This project relates to the association Intrface: https://intrface.dk
Among other things, work is taking place within the STEAM project, where nine colleges and seven museums in Central Denmark Region are participating in the STEAM Museum Development Project (2023-2025). Read more about the STEAM project here: https://intrface.dk/om-intrface/steam/
Ane Kirstine Peisler Skovgaard: The loom as image generator.
Gertrud Latif Knudsen: The art museum as a platform for local and social communities.
Supported by the New Carlsberg Foundation.
Jakob Rosendal: The girl's gaze - Gender, politics and aesthetics.
Kasper Lægring: Dutch and Danish Golden Age genre painting - a question of empathy?
Supported by the New Carlsberg Foundation.
Mia Falch Yates: Kunstneratelieret i lyd og rum.
Supported by the New Carlsberg Foundation.
Anne Margrethe Provst Skinnerup: The communication method's significance for attraction and relevance for user groups in order to clarify exhibition principles at the new Vildmosemuseum.
Commenced 2023. Project in collaboration with the Museum of Supply and Sustainability.
Christine Tommerup: Rodin the Collector
The Glyptotek’s Rodin collection is outstanding. Its impressive total of 39 works demonstrates an incredible range of materials, and nearly all of the works were created in Rodin’s lifetime, commissioned by Carl Jacobsen directly from the artist himself. Carl Jacobsen and Auguste Rodin shared a passion for antiquity and for collecting. The PhD project, Rodin the Collector conducted by Christine Tommerup will take a close look at Rodin’s fascination with antiquity by researching into the artist’s own private collection of ancient Greek and Roman objects and artefacts from Egypt, Japan, China, South America, the Middle East and India. The research project sets out to enhance our understanding of how Rodin deployed antiquity in his works.
The project is funded by the Ny Carlsberg Foundation and is being realised in a collaboration between Aarhus University and the Glyptotek.
Julie Lejsgaard Christensen: Classical Antiquity in the 21st Century – how?
The PhD project explores how ancient history and museum collections of classical antiquity may be re-actualized as inclusive, engaging, and relevant spaces for a contemporary and diverse museum audience. Employing the New Carlsberg Glyptotek and its classical antiquity collection as its case study, the project supplies empirical studies of museum practice and visitor experiences in the classical antiquity collection. The project aims to suggest new paths for antiquity museums in working with a diverse, inclusive, and engaging representation of ancient history, collections, and museum autobiographies.
The project is conducted in a collaboration between Aarhus University and The New Carlsberg Glyptotek, and is supported by The New Carlsberg Foundation.
Katrine Bruun Jørgensen: Beauty and Emotions – Medievalism in Danish Art from 1885 to 1937.
Katrine Bruun Jørgensen's PhD-project is entitled "Beauty and Emotions – Medievalism in Danish Art from 1885 to 1937." The project is based on the fact that in the period 1885-1937, an interest in medieval folk songs, historical events and aesthetics arose among Danish visual artists. Although several of the artists had a voice in contemporary debates and helped establish the artists' association Den Frie, several of the relevant artists have been relegated to a position as outsiders in Danish art history. Based on an understanding of "medievalism", the project examines the depictions of emotions and the worship of ideals of beauty in the medieval-inspired works.
Katrine Bruun Jørgensen is enrolled at the School of Communication and Culture of Aarhus University with professor Ane Hejlskov Larsen as supervisor and professor Lis Møller as co-supervisor.
Tilde Mønsted Klein: ”Hans Smidth and realism, naturalism and impressionism before and after 1900”.
Commenced 2021. Project in collaboration with Museum Salling and Ny Carlsberg Foundation.
Christiane Særkjær: "Art, dialogue and experiment: user participation as a social catalyst for museum communication".
Completed 2020. Project under Our museum and done in collaboration with Randers Art Museum.
Mia Falch Yates: "Older art and contemporary users: new methods of communication of the Skovgaard family's art and contemporaries”.
Completed 2020. Project under Our museum and done in collaboration with the Skovgaard Museum.
Theis Vallø Madsen: "Ants in the Archive; Cataloguing Mogens Otto Nielsen's Mail Art Archive".
Completed in 2015. The project was carried out in collaboration with KUNSTEN. Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg. Read more about the project and find its published articles on Faaborg Museum's website
Sally Thorhauge: "Interface learning: New goals for museum and upper secondary school collaboration".
Completed in 2014. The project was carried out in collaboration with the Danish Industrial Museum, Horsens Upper Secondary School and Palaces and Danish Agency for Culture.
Ingrid Vatne: "Dramatised museums. A study of the participatory aspect in communication at open-air museums and historical centres".
Completed in 2013. The project was carried out in collaboration with Den Gamle By.
Line Hjorth Christensen: "The Poster Movement - a British Design Front in the Interwar Years".
Completed in 2006. Buy the book based on the dissertation here.
Our Museum
National research and development project on innovative and digital museum communication. Participants from Aarhus University: Ane Hejlskov Larsen, Mia Falch Yates, Christiane Særkjær and Lise Skytte Jakobsen.
The Our Museum research projekt brought together researchers from five universities and eight museums between 2016 and 2021. The members of Centre for Museology participated in examining the experiential and enlightenment dimensions of museums, both historically and currently, in order to shed light on how forms of communication have changed, and may continue to change, in order to strengthen active citizenship for more users.
The project trained 11 new PhDs for the museum field. Read more about Our Museum here.
The Strategic Museum
The Strategic Museum was an interdisciplinary project collaboration between Centre for Corporate Communication and Centre for Museology at Aarhus University. The aim was to study Danish museums' strategic communications, with particular focus on three central areas: Communication, Management and Finance. This included the following: Topics such as positioning, sponsorship, internal communication and management.
The project created a thorough knowledge of how museums act in a complex society and their future possibilities for working strategically with all groups of stakeholders, internally as well as externally.
The project was funded by the Danish Research Council for Culture and Communication in the period 01.07.2009 - 30.06.2012.
Publications from the project:
Gertrud Latif Knudsen: Corporate Communication and Dynamic Stakeholders' expectations of a city museum, see the PhD dissertation here
