Fiona Candlin

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Overview
Overview
Biography
Fiona Candlin worked in the education department at Tate Liverpool, and in the School of Architecture and Art History at Liverpool University, before being appointed to a lectureship jointly held by The British Museum and Birkbeck in 2000. In this role she established and organised the World Arts and Artefacts Certificate programme, which offered specialist collections-based teaching at numerous London museums. She joined the department of History of Art at Birkbeck in 2009, where she worked with colleagues to establish the MA Museum Cultures. She has published widely on various aspects of museums, particularly on small independent museums, data collection in the museum sector, and the history of touch.
Highlights
In 2016 Fiona Candlin and Alex Poulovassilis Professor of Computer Science at Birkbeck were awarded £1,000,000 by the AHRC for the Mapping Museums research project. The team has since collected information on over 4,000 museums, and then built a database that allows that information to be browsed, searched, and visualised. The database is publicly accessible and free to use.
Fiona and the Mapping Museums team have produced a report that identifies and analyses trends in the emergence, distribution, and closure of UK museums since 1960.
The Mapping Museums research team have been awarded £190,000 COVID rapid response funding for their work on UK Museums during the Pandemic. Beginning in January 2021, the project will use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to assess museum closure, risk and resilience during and after the crisis. There is more information on the project blog.
You can listen to Fiona talking about her interview-based work with people who set up their own museums on the Radio 3 broadcast New Thinking About Museums.
In 2018 the Bakelite Museum in Somerset closed its doors to the public. Fiona was invited to film its final days and she worked with the Derek Jarman lab to make The Plastic Phoenix, which can be viewed online.
Qualifications
- BA (Hons) Fine Art, Leeds University, 1991
- MA Critical Theory, University of Sussex, 1993
- PhD , Keele University, 1998
Administrative responsibilities
- MA Museum Cultures programme leader
Visiting posts
- Visiting Professor, KonstLab, Gothenburg University, 10-2005 to 09-2007
Professional memberships
Board Member of the Birkbeck Centre for Museum Cultures
Board Member of Raphael Samuel History Centre
ORCID
0000-0002-6495-4618 -
Research
Research
Research overview
Fiona Candlin has written extensively on histories and theories of museums. Her work has consistently examined and challenged received conceptions of museums, of what they do, how they are used, who founds and runs them, and of how they are studied.
Candlin was the director of two large-scale AHRC-funded research projects, both involving a multi-disciplinary team of computer and data scientists, historians, and museologists. Mapping Museums documented and analysed the development of the UK museum sector from 1960 until 2020, producing the only longitudinal database of UK museums since 1960, the first comprehensive analysis of how the sector had developed and changed, and the book Stories From Small Museums. Here, Candlin explained how and why community and special interest groups established their own museums and in so doing changed the profile of the UK museum sector.
UK Museums in the Pandemic started where the Mapping Museums research finished. The project developed and used innovative web-scraping technologies to document and assess museum opening, closure, and activity during the pandemic.
Mapping Museums developed out of Candlin’s previous Leverhulme-funded study of small independent museums. Arguing that the study of micromuseums could change dominant ideas about what museums are and do, her book Micromuseology analysed museums including the Witchcraft Museum in Boscastle, the Bakelite Museum in Somerset, and the Lurgan history Museum in Northern Ireland. Before that, Fiona wrote histories of touch in museums, and was particularly interested in how audiences touch exhibits without permission.
Her new work considers experimental museums and notions of museum permanence.
Research projects
Micromuseology
Art, Museums, and Touch
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
I am happy to consider enquiries from potential doctoral students on topics relating to
- micromuseums
- independent museums
- local authority museums
- museum environments
- museum closure
- theories of objects
Doctoral alumni
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MARK LIEBENROOD
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MIKE BOWMAN
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NEIL HANDLEY
Teaching
Fiona teaches on the MA Museum Cultures and BA History of Art
Teaching modules
- Museum Cultures Work Placement (ARVC054S7)
- MA Museum Cultures Dissertation (ARVC056D7)
- Museum Cultures - Approaches, Issues, Skills (ARVC059S7)
- Micromuseums (ARVC276S7)
- Museum Experiments (ARVC293S7)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Candlin, Fiona and Ballatore, A. and Larkin, J. and Poulovassilis, A. and Katerinchuk, V. and Liebenrood, M. (2023) The UK museum boom: continuity and change 1960-2019. Cultural Trends ISSN 0954-8963.
- Candlin, Fiona and Larkin, Jamie (2020) What is a Museum? Difference all the way down. Museum and Society 18 (2), pp. 115-131. ISSN 1479-8360.
- Poulovassilis, Alexandra and Larsson, Nick and Candlin, Fiona and Larkin, Jamie and Ballatore, Andrea (2020) Creating a Knowledge Base to research the history of UK Museums through Rapid Application Development. ACM Journal of Computing and Cultural Heritage 12 (4), pp. 1-27. ISSN 1556-4673.
- Candlin, Fiona and Larkin, Jamie and Ballatore, Andrea and Poulovassilis, Alexandra (2020) The missing museums: accreditation, surveys, and an alternative account of the UK sector. Cultural Trends 29 (1), pp. 50-67. ISSN 0954-8963.
- Candlin, Fiona and Poulovassilis, Alexandra (2020) Understanding and managing patchy data in the UK museum sector. Museum Management and Curatorship 35 (4), pp. 446-459. ISSN 0964-7775.
- Candlin, Fiona (2017) Rehabilitating unauthorised touch or why museum visitors touch the exhibits. Senses and Society 12 (3), pp. 251-266. ISSN 1745-8927.
- Candlin, Fiona (2012) Independent museums, heritage, and the shape of museum studies. Museum and Society 10 (1), pp. 28-41. ISSN 1479-8360.
- Candlin, Fiona (2008) Touch and the limits of the rational museum, or can matter think?. Senses and Society 3 (3), pp. 277-292. ISSN 1745-8927.
- Candlin, Fiona (2004) Don’t touch! hands off! art, blindness and the conservation of expertise. Body & Society 10 (1), pp. 71-90. ISSN 1357-034X.
- Candlin, Fiona (2003) Blindness, art and exclusion in museums and galleries. The International Journal of Art & Design 22 (1), pp. 100-110. ISSN 1476-8062.
- Candlin, Fiona (2001) A dual inheritance: the politics of educational reform and PhDs in art and design. The International Journal of Art & Design Education 20 (3), pp. 302-310. ISSN 1476-8062.
- Candlin, Fiona (2000) Practice-based doctorates and questions of academic legitimacy. International Journal of Art and Design Education 19 (1), pp. 96-101. ISSN 1476-8062.
- Candlin, Fiona (2000) A proper anxiety: practice-based PhDs and academic unease. Working Papers in Art and Design 1 (1), ISSN 1466-4917.
Book
- Candlin, Fiona and Butler, Toby and Watts, J. (2022) Stories from small museums. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526166883.
- Candlin, Fiona (2015) Micromuseology: an analysis of small independent museums. London, UK: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781474254977.
- Candlin, Fiona (2009) Art, museums and touch. Rethinking Art's Histories. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719079337.
- Candlin, Fiona and Guins, R. (2008) The Object Reader. In Sight: Visual Culture. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415452304.
Book Section
- Candlin, Fiona (2018) Sensory separation and the founding of art history. In: Howes, D. (ed.) Senses and Sensation: Critical and Primary Sources: Art and Design. Critical and Primary Sources. London, UK: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781474274050.
- Candlin, Fiona (2014) Embracing sculpture, holding stones: on gender and the details of touch. In: Dent, Peter (ed.) Sculpture and Touch. Subject/Object: New Studies in Sculpture. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. pp. 181-196. ISBN 9781409412311.
- Candlin, Fiona (2013) Keeping objects live. In: MacDonald, S. and Rees Leahy, H. (eds.) Museum [Transformations/Theory/Media/Practice]. The International Handbooks of Museum Studies. Hoboken, U.S.: Wiley. pp. 1-23. ISBN 9781405198509.
- Candlin, Fiona (2012) Open House at the Vintage Wireless Museum. In: Seijdel, J. and Melis, L. and Lütticken, S. (eds.) Open 23 Autonomy. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Nai Publishers. ISBN 9789056628581.
- Candlin, Fiona (2009) Yesterday upon the stair. In: Candlin, Fiona and Guins, R. (eds.) The Object Reader. In Sight: Visual Culture. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415452304.
- Candlin, Fiona and Guins, R. (2009) Introducing objects: what, when and where, how. In: Candlin, Fiona and Guins, R. (eds.) The Object Reader. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415452304.
- Candlin, Fiona (2008) Museums, modernity and the class politics of touching objects. In: Chatterjee, H. (ed.) Touch in Museums: Policy and Practice in Object Handling. Oxford, UK: Berg. ISBN 9781847882387.
- Candlin, Fiona (2008) A dual inheritance: the politics of educational reform and PhDs in art and design. In: Hickman, R. (ed.) Research In Art & Design Education : Issues and Exemplars. Bristol, UK: Intellect Ltd.. pp. 99-108. ISBN 9781841501994.
- Candlin, Fiona (2001) Space, chastity and classicism at The British Museum. In: Jones, David J. and Normie, Gerald (eds.) 2001 - A Spatial Odyssey. Nottingham: Continuing Education Press. pp. 54-65. ISBN 185041095X.
- Candlin, Fiona and O'Brien, Margaret (2001) Lifelong learning in museums: a critical appraisal. In: Jones, David J. and Normie, Gerald (eds.) 2001 - A Spatial Odyssey. Nottingham: Continuing Education Press. pp. 176-186. ISBN 185041095X.
Conference Item
- Candlin, Fiona (2018) Mapping museums and conceptual modelling. Spatial Humanities conference, 2018, Sheffield, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2018) Village life, the Cold War, and the Beeching Cuts: opening museums in the UK. Small Museums in a Global context symposium, 2018, London, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2018) Where was the museums boom?. Digital Humanities Conference, 2018, Lancaster, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2016) Micromuseology. Pitt Rivers Museum Research Seminar in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology, 2016, Oxford, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2016) Partisans Reviewed. Im/Material: Encounters within the Creative Arts Archive, 2016, London, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2016) What the attendants saw and the visitors felt: vandalism and patterns of unauthorised touch at the British Museum. Conventions of Proximity in Art, Theatre and Performance, 2016, London, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2015) The Micro-museums Archives Project. Archives and Society, 2015, London, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2015) Micromuseums and archives. Archives Group Annual Conference, 2015, London, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2014) Clutter. Curating the Archive, 2014, London, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2014) Home Visiting: Micromuseums in domestic spaces. The Archive and Domestic and Private Space, 2014, Royal College of Art
- Candlin, Fiona (2012) Micromuseology: researching small, independent, single-subject museums. New Approaches to the Past: Methodological Innovation in Heritage Research seminar series, 2012, University College London
- Candlin, Fiona (2011) Art and the etiquette of touch. Seminar Series, School of Graduate Studies in association with the Concordia Sensoria Research Team, 2011, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
- Candlin, Fiona (2011) How museums feel. American Anthropological Association Conference, 2011, Montreal, Canada
- Candlin, Fiona (2011) Night shift at the British Museum. Night Shift Seminar Series, 2011, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2011) A short and partial history of museum and gallery access provision for blind and partially-sighted audiences. Visual Impairment Training Day, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 2011, Edinburgh, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2010) Object handling in English museums: histories of tactual knowledge. Birkbeck Symposia, 2010, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2010) The object reader. College Art Association Conference, 2010, Chicago, USA
- Candlin, Fiona (2009) Differentiating touch / tactual practices. College Art Association conference, 2009, Los Angeles, USA
- Candlin, Fiona (2009) Touch and art in contemporary museums. Research Seminar Series, 2009, Reading University, Reading, UK
- Candlin, Fiona (2008) Licit and illicit touch. Touch and Sculpture, 2008, The Courtauld Institute of Art
Other
- Candlin, Fiona and Larkin, Jamie and Ballatore, Andrea and Poulovassilis, Alexandra (2020) Mapping Museums 1960-2020: a report on the data. London, UK: Birkbeck, University of London.
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Business and community
Business and community
Media
I am happy to receive enquiries from the media on the following topics:
- museum closure
- small museums
- long-term change in the museum sector
- museum founders and volunteers
Outreach
Working with organisations with responsibility for museums in the UK (ongoing)
Multiple presentations on the methods and findings of the Mapping Museums project to Arts Council England (ACE), the Museum Development Network (MDN), the Department of Digital Media and Culture (DCMS), and the Museums organisations group (which includes senior representatives from ACE, MDN, DCMS, the Museums Association, the Association of Independent Museums, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, National Museum Directors Board and others).
Media
BBC Radio 3: New Thinking on Museums October 2020
The Plastic Phoenix, a film about the closure of the Bakelite Museum made with the Derek Jarman Institute
The Micromuseums Archive Bishopsgate Institute, London (ongoing)
The Micromuseums Archive, opened at Bishopsgate Institute in March 2015 and houses materials relating to small independent museums in the UK. At present, the archive contains interviews with museum founders and the leaflets, booklets, and postcards that were collected by Dr Fiona Candlin in the course of her research. Candlin and the archive are actively developing these holdings.There are approximately 1300 small, independent museums (micromuseums) in the UK. They cover subjects as diverse as lawnmowers, lead mining, and Witchcraft and, in so doing, make an important contribution to our cultural life and history. The Micromuseums Archive aims at documenting these venues and at enabling future study in the area.
Public presentations and lectures
The UK independent museums boom. Invited lecture at the Association of Independent Museums annual conference June 2019.
Mapping Museums. Invited lecture at the Association of Independent Museums annual conference June 2017.
Mapping Museums. Museums Showoff, London January 2017
Micromuseums as Radical Heritage. Radical Heritage Symposia, Raphael Samuel History Centre, Wellcome Institute, 2015.
Services
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Consultancies and expert advice
Arts Council England: Invited member of Steering Committee on Data Collection