Art and Design at Reading

Reading School of Art and the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication together form a research division of singular strength with shared values and distinctive domains of excellence.

We embrace research-informed practice and interdisciplinary approaches, we value partnerships and collaboration, and we are committed to impactful public service and engagement.

Collections and archives underpin our understanding of the past and the present. We celebrate the future of research through the work of our doctoral and postdoctoral communities.

""

Research in the School of Art

Art at Reading is shaped by a dynamic community of practising artists, whose research explores how art is made, shared, and experienced today.

Working across physical, digital and hybrid spaces, we investigate the role of art in public life, social change and cultural discourse.

""

Formats and platforms

Artistic research at Reading takes multiple forms, from studio practice and live performance to writing, publishing, and digital installation. These intersect with curating, teaching and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Formats are not just modes of presentation but tools for inquiry – shaping how research is made public, shared and experienced.

""

Engaged research

Our research engages deeply with:

  • public art and sculpture that reimagines space and builds dialogue with communities
  • socially engaged practices that address participation, social justice, and ecological concerns
  • digital art exploring virtual and hybrid environments
  • performative approaches to publishing and curation that question how art is shared and experienced.
""

External collaboration

We collaborate with museums, galleries, collections, and cultural institutions internationally to ensure our work resonates beyond academic contexts.

By forging connections between artists, audiences, and institutions, we create and sustain practices that are responsive, critical and future-facing.

Research projects

""

Reading International

This curatorial project, led by Susanne Clausen, Julia Crabtree and John Russell, brings international artists to Reading. The project fosters experimental practices and public engagement through exhibitions, performances and site-specific commissions.

""

Rethinking Wellbeing

In collaboration with Henley Business School, Simon Willems investigates how contemporary artists critique organisational wellbeing programmes – and how they challenge the neoliberal frameworks that shape them.

More recent projects

  • Foyer: John Russell explores image production and speculative environments.
  • Moving In: Florian Roithmayr creates public sculpture that engages with the physical and historical layers of a London construction site.
  • Home is where the music is / No door, one window, only light: Chris Zhongtian Yuan’s interlinked moving image works reflect on migration, language and musical memory.
  • Slip: Julia Crabtree and William Evans make sculpture, landscape and material transformations through an immersive installation.
  • The larger in/and the smaller: Tim Renshaw explores how painting’s planes and surfaces carry meaning, shaping our embodied experience of space through architecture and perception.
""

Community engagement

Simon Says/Dadda: Beverley Bennett’s film installation engages communities in familial memory, language, and inherited trauma.

Artists for Ukraine: a curatorial initiative led by Susanne Clausen supports displaced Ukrainian artists through fundraising exhibitions, residencies and collaborative programming.

""

Writing

Gestalt by Karenjit Sandhu: a poetic enquiry of the Panchayat, a collective of South Asian and Black artists involved in communal archiving and activism.

An Oral History with Jina Valentine by Kelly Lloyd: a collaborative dialogue on race, pedagogy, and art-making in the US.

""

Talks

Infomanticism: Rethinking the Romantic Subject Through Situated Sound Works by Annabel Frearson: a reflection on reconfiguring the Romantic subject using sound-based artistic strategies.

Fluxus: Kunst gleich Leben? by Dorothee Richter: a lecture exploring Fluxus and the blurring of art and life.

Subversive Performance in the Age of Human Capital by Pil and Galia Kollectiv: a discussion on art, labour, and performance in contemporary economies.

""

News and events

Find the most up-to-date information about research projects and events happening at University of Reading’s School of Art.
""

Meet the team

Our community of staff includes internationally renowned academics, recognised for the excellence of their teaching and research.