Lancaster
University
Lancaster
Institute for the Contemporary Arts
Further
particulars (Reference A548)
The Lancaster Institute for the
Contemporary Arts is
an exciting new development designed to house interdisciplinary and
disciplinary degree schemes in Art, Music, and Theatre Studies.
Our developing emphasis on the interdisciplinary
acknowledges the cross-fertilisation of the arts in the twenty-first
century. We aim to focus on and to
facilitate a laboratory-based exploration of arts practice of importance to
academic, professional, and creative industries communities.
A Director appointed to the new Institute can expect
to be joining a highly research-active unit that draws on ground-breaking
studies and innovatory teaching programmes to create a new powerhouse for
practice-led research in the contemporary arts.
What makes our research distinctive and
distinguishes it from that of our national competitors is our interaction with
artists in different media; and the interaction of artists with theorists and
historians in disciplinary and interdisciplinary ways. Our primary commitment
is to the ‘informed practitioner’ – the contemporary artist (in which ever
discipline) who is able not only to create sustainable and resonant works, but
also to understand their practice critically, conceptually and historically,
and work independently or collaboratively. This model of the creative artist is
not only culturally apposite to the age in which we live (with the
cross-fertilisation of disciplines), but is also very well matched to the
diverse demands of careers in the creative and cultural industries, which
frequently require a combination of creative and academic skills, together with
entrepreneurship.
Our creative environment is one that enables all
staff to produce research that ranges from strategic solo projects (e.g., monographs, solo exhibitions,
practice-as-research etc.), to collaborative and group-based research (e.g.,
performance, installation, curatorship). The Institute is host to two research
centres, CASCPP (Centre for the Advanced Study of Contemporary Performance
Practice) and PATRIC (Centre for Practice and Theory: Research in Composition).
Music and Theatre Studies are also co-hosts of PALATINE (The Performing Arts
Learning and Teaching Innovation Network), a Subject
Centre of the Higher Education Academy.
The Institute delivers undergraduate and
postgraduate degree programmes in Fine Art, History of Art, Music, Music
Technology, Theatre Studies and Creative Arts. New interdisciplinary
programmes, particularly in research and at postgraduate level, are being
planned; another area expected to develop is the relationship with the Creative
Industries.
Art
The notion of the 'informed practitioner' encompasses staff and
postgraduate, the MA and the 'Fine Art' BA as well as some MPhil and PhD
research. A core collaborative research project currently underway, led by an
externally-funded Research Fellow, deals with 'Visual Intelligence' - the
decision making processes utilised by artists in the creation of artworks. Full time staff are engaged either in their
own practices as research, some of which - such as sound art - cross
disciplines, or academic research that contributes not only to a knowledge of
art, but to a broader understanding of cultural history.
Music is known for work in theory
and analysis, which has for some time figured strongly in the undergraduate
curriculum as well as in research. Our curriculum has recently expanded to
include such specialised areas as source studies, psychology of music, and
ballet. In 2003 we launched a separate degree in Music Technology that is
rapidly building up a substantial and important presence. During the 1990s, the
Department was host to the Computers in Teaching Initiative centre for Music
and the lead centre for the Teaching and Learning Technology programme for
Music. Now, with Theatre Studies, it is co-host to PALATINE, the Learning and
Teaching Support Network centre for the performing arts (now a Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy).
Music is building on this strong foundation of high-quality research and
teaching, responsive to the modern world in the knowledge of the value of the
past. With
the recent appointments of Antti Saario and Takayuki Rai, the Institute now has
three members of staff active in electro-acoustic composition. In further
appointments we plan to expand our expertise in other areas of contemporary
music practice also.
Theatre Studies is a leader among British university theatre
departments in the study of innovative contemporary performance and its
cultural significance. We aim to engage with the key issues of our times. We have particular interests in contemporary
experimental theatre, contemporary British playwriting, European theatre,
women’s writing for performance, television and video drama, multi-media
performance, dance and physical theatre, radical and political performance, and
critical and cultural theory. These interests are reflected both in the
curriculum and in the research culture that we bring to the Institute.
Our theatre
degree schemes offer students unique opportunities for the study of theatre and
performance. In brief, we have –
·
a
stimulating integration of practical and theoretical work;
·
one
of the best studio spaces of its kind in Europe, the Nuffield Studio Theatre;
·
flexible
and coherent degree schemes;
·
a
friendly and lively atmosphere that fosters independent thought and creativity;
·
strong
links with the creative industries at local, national and international levels;
·
demonstrated
teaching excellence;
·
an
excellent reputation for research and innovation,
·
and
an engagement with contemporary culture through drama, theatre and performance.
For further information on all three subject areas
and degree schemes, please access the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary
Arts website at
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/lica/
Lancaster
Institute for the Contemporary Arts
Acting
director/
(to 31 July 2006):
Professor of theatre Elaine Aston, B.A. (East
Anglia), M.A., Ph.D. (Warwick)
Professor of music: Roger
W. Bray, M.A., D.Phil. (Oxford)
Professor of art: Nigel
S. Whiteley, B.A. (Wales), Diploma in Design
(C.N.A.A.), Ph.D. (Lancaster), F.R.S.A.
Emeritus professor: Denis
J. McCaldin, B.Sc., Ph.D. (Nottingham),
B.Mus. (Birmingham)
Senior lecturers: Neil
A. Boynton, G.G.S.M., M.A. (City), Ph.D. (Cambridge)
Gerald Davies, B.A. (C.N.A.A.), M.A. (R.C.A.)
(London)
Geraldine M. Harris, B.A., M.A. (Manchester),
Ph.D (Lancaster)
Alan A. Marsden, B.A. (Southampton), Ph.D. (Cambridge)
Deborah H. Mawer, B.Mus.,
Ph.D. (London), L.R.A.M.
Andrew J. Quick, B.A. (Newcastle), M.A.,
Ph.D. (Bristol)
Takayuki Rai, B.Mus (Toho Gakuen)
Emma Rose, B.A.
(C.N.A.A.), M.A. (London)
Lecturers: Rebecca L.
Herissone, M.A., Ph.D. (Cambridge), M.Mus. (London)
Ola Johansson, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (Stockholm)
Carl Lavery, B.A. (Wales), M.A. (Norwich),
Ph.D. (Universitié de Paris
VIII)
Amanda Newall, P.G.Dip., M.F.A.
(Auckland)
Antti S. Saario, B.A. (Keele), Ph.D.
(Birmingham)
Graham Saunders, B.A., Ph.D.
(Birmingham)
Nigel H. Stewart, B.A. (Leeds), M.Litt. (Birmingham)
Edward J. Venn, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
(Birmingham), L.R.S.M.
Kirk Woolford, B.Sc. (Clarkson, Potsdam, NY),
M.Sc.
(Illinois) Institute of Technology
Research fellow: Rebecca
Fortnum, B.A. (Oxon), M.F.A. (Newcastle)
Music technology
support officer: Rosemary
A. Fitzgerald, B.Mus., Ph.D. (Leeds), M.Sc. (Limerick)
Teaching fellow: Sarah
O’Brien, B.A. (Hertfordshire), M.A. (Lancaster)
Director of the Nuffield
Theatre: Matthew Fenton, B.A. (Lancaster),
M.A. (Strasbourg)
Public
Arts
The public arts provision at Lancaster centres on
the Peter Scott Gallery, Nuffield Theatre, and Lancaster International
Concerts. These have excellent local and national reputations, links to research and teaching programmes,
and, in due course, are to be fully integrated into the new Institute.
Lancaster’s
Peter Scott Gallery presents a varied programme of temporary exhibitions and
associated talks. The gallery houses Lancaster University’s international art
collection which includes paintings and prints by Japanese, Chinese, Inuit and
American artists, and prints by significant European artists such as Miro,
Picasso, Matisse, Ernst and Vasarely.
The Nuffield Theatre
The Nuffield
Theatre is regarded as one of the best theatre spaces of its kind in
Europe. It is a fully adaptable studio
that serves as a laboratory, resources centre, teaching space and theatre for
productions and projects, with state-of-the-art computer lighting, first-rate
sound systems and a fully equipped workshop. The Nuffield is a major research
tool for investigations into contemporary performance. It has a long and
respected tradition of staging and commissioning experimental performance from
across the UK and abroad. From Jerzy Grotowsky to Bobby Baker, Forced
Entertainment to Akram Khan, many of the most important performance makers of
the last 30 years have shown their work here. Since 2003 the Nuffield Theatre
has been in receipt of enhanced funding from Arts Council England North West to
commission and stage a programme of work by new and emerging artists, and new
works by established artists, including Walker Dance and Park Music, Ursula
Martinez, Scarlet Theatre, Vincent Dance Theatre, and Dance North West's Xposure!
project.
The University promotes a series of weekly
professional concerts, of which the artistic director is Tim Williams. The
recent 2004-05 programme was typically eclectic and included appearances by the
BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Orchestra of Opera North, the English
Concert, Sinfonia VIVA, the Lindsay Quartet, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra,
Kalman Balogh and the Gypsy Cimbalom Band, the North West Pops Orchestra, and
the Grand Union Orchestra, with appearances by Peter Maxwell Davies, Kathryn
Stott, Natalie Clein etc., and chamber recitals by Angela Hewitt, Mark Padmore
and Ralph Kirschbaum etc. The music
performed includes works from Vivaldi to Maxwell Davies, bhangra, and klezmer.
Students in the
arts have priority access to the University’s new Centre for Media and
Performance, comprising up-to-date digital, Internet, and video studio
facilities, with support from professional television producers and technicians.
Staff also draw on the expertise of CMP for their individual and collaborative
research projects.
The three subjects are housed close to each other
around the Great Hall, Nuffield Theatre and Scott Gallery, and a comprehensive
review of existing teaching spaces in all three departments is now under way,
which will lead to the identification of the need for a substantial building
programme of teaching, administration and public space.
Lancaster University’s commitment to the new
Institute is reflected in its recent appointments to five new posts in:
• Digital Fine Art
• Art Practice and Curatorship
• Music
Technology and Sound Art
• Contemporary Performance, Live Art
and New Media
• Performance, Globalisation and
Theatre for Social Change
These
appointments are firmly rooted in the interdisciplinary and contemporary ethos
of the new Institute for which we are now seeking to appoint a Director.
For the post of director
we are seeking
a senior figure with a commitment to the interdisciplinary ethos of the
Institute, an international reputation in one of the disciplines within the
Institute and/or interdisciplinary areas spanning these subject areas, an
internationally significant record of publication and/or public
performance/exhibition, a significant and proven leadership and administrative
record in Higher Education institutions or equivalent, including the ability to
work co-operatively and flexibly with academic, administrative and public arts
colleagues, an established record in securing substantial research funding, and
substantial high-quality experience of teaching in Higher Education in one of
the disciplines within the Institute and/or interdisciplinary areas spanning
these subject areas.
The closing date for the
post is: Friday 21st October
2005
Informal enquiries about the
post may be made to:
The Dean of the Faculty of
Arts and Social Sciences, Professor Tony Gatrell,
Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences
The Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts is a new initiative in
the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Created in August 2005, FASS brings together
academic departments in the arts and humanities and the social sciences. Our
interests span the range of disciplines and are embedded in the research and
teaching activities of fifteen departments and institutes. We pride
ourselves on our reputation for high quality research, and three-quarters of
our academic areas were rated either 5 or 5* in the 2001 Research Assessment
Exercise (RAE). We are proud to have been recognised as one of the top 100
Universities world-wide in the social sciences. Our teaching is also of the
highest quality, with consistently excellent rankings.
As well as having 15 departments we have 250
members of academic staff and 112 colleagues working in an administrative
capacity. In 2004-05 we looked after approximately 4200 undergraduate students
and 500 postgraduates, of which over 500 came from outside the European Union.
Our aim is to give all our students an enriching experience of study.
Lancaster University prides itself on its
interdisciplinarity, and our Faculty is no exception. Among various
examples we can highlight the new Institute
for Advanced Studies, which promotes inter- and post-disciplinary research
across the Faculty, with associated links to the Management School, as well as
the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts.
Lancaster
and Lancaster University
Lancaster University is consistently
rated as one of the top ten UK universities for research and was recently ranked as the top university in the North West
of England. There are about 10,000
students, including about 3,000 postgraduates.
Its campus has been attractively developed in the grounds of the
Bailrigg House estate, in countryside three miles south of the city. The sea is
close by to the west, the hills of the Pennines and Bowland Forest lie to the
east, and the Fylde plain opens up to the south, while Morecambe Bay, the Lake
District and the Lune Valley are readily accessible to the north.
Lancaster and district embraces around 140,000 people. Once largely a
manufacturing town, the city is now geared towards tourism, retailing and the
services, the last dominated especially by a major hospital complex and of
course by the expanding University. The history of the city is readily apparent
to visitors, with its Roman remains, medieval castle and priory, robust
Georgian and Victorian buildings, attractively and recently refurbished and
pedestrian-friendly centre, and parks and riverside walks. Former mill
buildings have been converted into apartments.
Attractive property is also available in the suburbs and nearby
villages. Most incomers find property prices in the area noticeably lower than
in many parts of Britain, and likewise council taxes. In Lancaster itself there
are excellent local schools (including two high quality state grammar schools),
an arts cinema, theatres, a very good museum and (thanks especially to the
student population) a lively nightlife. There is easy and rapid access to
additional facilities in south Lakeland and Preston.
The larger conurbations of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, with their
academic resources and other attractions, are little more than an hour away via
the motorway network whose access is only five minutes from campus. Train
services link Lancaster with London, Glasgow and Edinburgh in around three
hours. There are convenient connections to several international airports.
DIRECTOR OF
LANCASTER INSTITUTE FOR THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS
Job
Description
·
Directorship
of the Institute for 3 years in the first instance, where duties include
leadership in all aspects of the Institute’s activities: administration,
research, teaching and outreach/ third mission.
·
To oversee
the full integration of Lancaster’s public arts into the Institute.
·
To attract
and supervise postgraduate research students.
·
To
contribute to the teaching programmes in one of the disciplines within the
Institute and/or interdisciplinary areas.
Person Specification
Essential
requirements
·
The ability
to take on the Headship of the Institute and to develop its research, outreach
(including Creative and Cultural industries) and teaching activities in
conjunction with the members of the Institute.
·
A commitment
to the interdisciplinary ethos of the Institute.
·
A
significant and proven leadership and administrative record including an
established record in securing substantial external funding.
·
Ability to
adapt to change and be prepared to undertake a wide variety of activities.
Desirable
requirements
·
An
internationally-significant record of publications and/or public
performances/exhibitions in an area relevant to the Institute.
·
Substantial
high-quality experience of teaching in Higher Education in one of the
disciplines within the Institute and/or interdisciplinary areas spanning these
subject areas.
·
Experience
of module design, curriculum development and quality assurance.
·
The ability
to relate to, motivate and teach students and to carry out pastoral functions.