The research unit studies past and present architecture, design and urban culture, focusing especially on the history and theory of 20th century architecture and the city. Emphasis is placed on architecture and spatial design as creative practices as well as social and cultural phenomena.
The Strategic Museum or Strategic Cultural Communication. The research group focuses on strategic communication at museums and other cultural institutions, using cases and theory to examine how cultural organisations use communication as a strategic tool in-house as well as in collaboration with external stakeholders.
This research group studies the processes of mediation and meaning-making when the art and culture of museums and their collections are digitally analysed and documented. The group is affiliated with SMK Open, which is the digital initiative of the National Gallery of Denmark.
The research unit studies learning partnerships between cultural institutions and educational institutions, using theory and methods that make it possible to analyse the learning and practice that can arise at the interface between the two types of institution. This work is affiliated with the Intrface Association: https://intrface.dk Work is also being done in the STEAM at museums (2023-2025) development project, in which nine upper secondary schools and seven museums in Central Denmark Region are participating. Read more about the project here: https://intrface.dk/om-intrface/steam/
Ane Kirstine Peisler Skovgaard: The loom as the generator of images.
Gertrud Latif Knudsen: The art museum as a platform for local and social communities.
Funded 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?
Funded by the New Carlsberg Foundation.
Mia Falch Yates: The artist’s atelier in sound and space.
Funded by the New Carlsberg Foundation.
Anne Margrethe Provst:
A study of how methods of communication at museums influence attraction and relevance for user groups with a view to clarifying exhibition principles at the new Vildmosemuseum
The PhD-project was commenced 2023 and is being carried out 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 demonstrate an incredible range of materials, and nearly all of the works were created in Rodin’s lifetime, and 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 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 was inspired by and used antiquity in his works.
The PhD-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-actualised 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 carries out empirical studies of museum practice and visitor experiences in the classical antiquity collection. The project aims to suggest new paths for antiquity museums to follow when working with a diverse, inclusive and engaging representation of ancient history, collections and museum autobiographies.
The PhD-project is being conducted in a collaboration between Aarhus University and The New Carlsberg Glyptotek and is funded 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, Danish visual artists became interested in medieval folk songs, historical events and aesthetics. Although several of these artists were active in contemporary debates and helped establish the artists' association Den Frie, others became 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 medieval-inspired works.
Katrine Bruun Jørgensen is enrolled at the School of Communication and Culture at 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
The PhD-project was commenced in 2021 and is a collaboration with Museum Salling and the New Carlsberg Foundation.
Read more on Museum Salling's website
Christiane Særkjær: Art, dialogue and experiment: user participation as a social catalyst for museum communication
The PhD-project was completed in 2020. It was part of Our museum (please see Previous research programmes on this webpage) and was carried out 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 lifetime
The PhD-project was completed in 2020. It was part of Our museum (please see Previous research programmes below) and was carried out in collaboration with the Skovgaard Museum.
Theis Vallø Madsen: Ants in the Archive; Cataloguing Mogens Otto Nielsen's Mail Art Archive
The PhD-project was completed in 2015. It 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
The PhD-project was completed in 2014. It was carried out in a collaboration between Aarhus University, the Danish Industrial Museum, Horsens Upper Secondary School and the Danish Agency for Culture.
Ingrid Vatne: Dramatised museums. A study of the participatory aspect in communication at open-air museums and historical centres
The PhD-project was completed in 2013. It was carried out in collaboration with Den Gamle By.
Line Hjorth Christensen: The Poster Movement - a British Design Front in the Interwar Years
The PhD-project was completed in 2006. Buy the book based on the dissertation here.
Our Museum (2016-2021)
This was a national research and development project about innovative and digital museum communication. The participants from Aarhus University were Ane Hejlskov Larsen, Mia Falch Yates, Christiane Særkjær and Lise Skytte Jakobsen.
The Our Museum research project brought together researchers from five universities and eight museums. The members of the Centre for Museology participated in the study of how museums provide entertainment, experience and enlightenment, both historically and contemporarily, with a view to shedding light on how forms of communication and mediation have changed, and may continue to change, as a way to give more users a stronger sense of active citizenship.
In the course of the Our Museum project, 11 new PhD-projects pertaining to museums were created. Read more about Our Museum here.
The Strategic Museum
The Strategic Museum was an interdisciplinary research collaboration between the Centre for Corporate Communication and the Centre for Museology at Aarhus University. The aim was to study Danish museums' strategic communication, focusing especially on three main areas: Communication, Management and Finances. This included topics such as positioning, sponsorship, in-house communication, and management.
The research project created knowledge about how museums act in a complex society and about how they can work strategically with all groups of stakeholders, in-house as well as outside the museum.
The project was funded by the Danish Research Council for Culture and Communication from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2012.
Publications from the project:
