PhD Studentship - Collaboration and Competition: The National Gallery and the Regional Public Art Gallery, 1920s-1980s

Session 2025/26 - Closing Date 17:00 (UK time) 16^th May 2025

Award provides full fees and maintenance at standard UKRI rates (£20,780 in Session 2025/26) plus £600 enhancement per annum, a Research Training Support Grant plus other allowances (pro rata for part-time study).

The School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds and the National Gallery are pleased to announce a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship, from October 2025.

The PhD Project

The studentship aims to explore the history of collaborations and competition between the National Gallery (NG) and national networks, building on existing research developed by scholars such as Giles Waterfield, Jonathan Conlin and Christopher Whitehead. It will focus on a significant period of collaboration and competition between the NG and regional museums beginning in the 1920s with the collaboration between the NG and Southampton Art Gallery. It will focus on the role of the NG as a key node in a network of collaborations, investigating their influence on the changing landscape of regional museums but also how these models of collaboration and the initiatives generated in the ’Civic Art Museum’ have shaped practices at the NG. This project aims to reconsider the perceived benefits and challenges of collaborations over the period 1920s to 1980s and reflect on future models for NG collaborations as well as museum collaborations generally.

The methodology is envisaged to be primarily historical research drawn from institutional archives (reports, meetings, correspondence, press cuttings) at the NG and in regional art gallery archives. This historical lens of the 1920s-1980s can be supplemented by a focus on institutional memory through interviews and surveys of retired museum professionals. Secondary literature focused on museum and institutional histories and heritage studies will provide the wider contextual research material. You will develop a range of focused case-studies, developed through themed research questions. A key focus of the research will be a mapping and analysis of collaborative methodologies in museum and gallery practices, developing a contextual analysis of the interchange and influence of national and regional public art museums.

The project research questions will be refined by you in conjunction with the supervisors, Professor Mark Westgarth (University of Leeds) and Dr Susanna Avery-Quash (The National Gallery). As a collaborative award, you will be expected to spend time at both the University and The National Gallery.

Applicants must be able to demonstrate an interest in the museums, galleries, archives, library and heritage sector and potential and enthusiasm for developing skills more widely in related areas. 

Funding for the studentship will be for up to four years’ duration (or up to six years and eight months part-time). This will include development activities to allow you to gain a wide range of transferable professional skills and with the expectation that you will submit your thesis within the funding period.

Informal enquiries about the project should be directed to Professor Mark Westgarth (m.w.westgarth@leeds.ac.uk).

If you have any questions about the application process, contact the Admissions team (ahcpgradmissions@leeds.ac.uk)

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