MUSEUM IRELAND 2020
groundwork: the art museum as a site for research Lisa Moran
Introduction
Research is a reflexive process involving
In this paper, I discuss the ways in which research
experimentation, problem-solving and risk, and
takes place in the Irish Museum of Modern Art
as such, happens constantly in art museums. It is
(IMMA) and how a new strand of programming,
concerned with discovering new information or
1
groundwork, aims to make existing and new modes
reaching a new understanding. There are many
of research visible.
definitions of research, including ‘a studious inquiry or examination … aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts … the collecting of 2 information’. Also, ‘the detailed study of a
subject, especially in order to discover (new) 3
information or reach a (new) understanding.’ 1st year IADT students developing their research project in the basement of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2013.
Common to all research, though, is the aim to make known something that was previously unknown.
Credit: IMMA/IADT
87
