The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre

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The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre
Ruskin Library Lancaster University.jpg
The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre
The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre
54°00′36″N2°47′16″W / 54.0101197888021°N 2.7878114268054732°W / 54.0101197888021; -2.7878114268054732
Location Lancaster, England

The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre is an archive, Accredited Museum, [1] and research centre at University of Lancaster, [2] in the north of England. The Director of The Ruskin is Professor Sandra Kemp. [3] Prior to 2019, The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre was known as the Ruskin Library.

Contents

The Ruskin is home to The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection, the world's largest assemblage of works by artist, writer, environmentalist and social thinker John Ruskin (1819–1900), and his circle. [4] [5] The collection is on display in The Ruskin building at Lancaster University, designed for the collection by Sir Richard MacCormac, and Brantwood, Ruskin's house, garden and estate on Coniston Water. The Collection was purchased by University of Lancaster in 2019, with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. [6] The Ruskin launched on 26 September 2019 with the exhibition, ‘Ruskin: Museum of the Near Future’, to mark the bicentenary of Ruskin's birth in 1819. [7]

In 2021, Lancaster University announced that The Ruskin would close until 2024 to enable planned capital works to take place. During the temporary closure, The Ruskin's programmes of exhibitions, events, research and learning are taking place digitally and off-site.

The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection

The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection was formed by the educationalist and Liberal MP, John Howard Whitehouse (1873–1955). It is the most extensive collection of Ruskin's works in the world, and the most widely consulted because of its depth and range.

The collection contains thousands of paintings, drawings and diagrams, letters and manuscripts, photographs and daguerreotypes, a library - including Ruskin's own collection - and a complete repository of critical writing on Ruskin. Every aspect of Ruskin's polymathic interests are represented, from architecture and the arts, to political economy and the natural sciences.

2019 purchase

In 2019, the purchase of The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection at Lancaster University was funded by the Education Trust Limited and the Whitehouse Trust and with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund; Art Fund; Garfield Weston Foundation; Bowland Trust; Friends of the National Libraries; John R Murray Charitable Trust; Guild of St George; Aldama Foundation; Pilgrim Trust; and the Cohen Foundation.[ citation needed ]

The building

Designed by Sir Richard MacCormac of MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, [8] it was opened in 1998 by Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy. It subsequently won the Independent on Sunday Building of the Year Award 1996, the Royal Fine Art Commission/BSkyB Building of the Year University Winner 1998, and Millennium Products status awarded by the Design Council in 1999. [7]

Activities

The Collection is loaned to institutions internationally, across Europe, America and East Asia.

The Ruskin offers a programme of temporary exhibitions, talks, lectures and performances, and creative workshops for all ages. Since 2020, these have taken place digitally.

The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection is used in learning programmes taking place at Lancaster University, local schools and colleges, and continuing education, led by museum staff.

The Ruskin Research Centre is integrated with The Ruskin's public-facing programme, producing ‘live’ research in partnership with its communities, and through its established seminar series and journal.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashmolean Museum</span> University Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford, England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood</span> Group of English painters, poets and critics, founded in 1848

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lancaster University</span> Public university in Lancaster, England

Lancaster University is a public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new universities created in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Rylands Research Institute and Library</span> Research library building on Deansgate in Manchester, England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guild of St George</span> Charitable education trust

The Guild of St George is a charitable Education Trust, based in England but with a worldwide membership, which tries to uphold the values and put into practice the ideas of its founder, John Ruskin (1819–1900).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. G. Collingwood</span> English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts (1854–1932)

William Gershom Collingwood was an English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts at University College, Reading. A long-term resident of Coniston, Cumbria, he was President of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society and the Lake Artists' Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brantwood</span> English historic house and museum

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bembridge School</span> Independent school in Bembridge, Isle of Wight, England

Sheffield, England, has a large population of amateur, working and professional visual artists and artworks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wellcome Collection</span> Museum and library in London, England

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MJP Architects is an employee-owned British architectural practice established in 1972 by Sir Richard MacCormac, and based in Spitalfields, London. The practice officially changed its name from MacCormac Jamieson Prichard to MJP Architects in June 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Howard Whitehouse</span> British politician (1873–1955)

John Howard Whitehouse (1873–1955) was the founder and first Warden of Bembridge School on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom, and a Member of Parliament. His father, George Whitehouse, was a Quaker and an uncompromising Gladstonian Liberal whose strong views on issues such as Irish Home Rule and opposition to the politics of Liberal Unionist, later Conservative, leader Joseph Chamberlain were to shape his son's political views. Whitehouse, throughout his career in politics and later at Bembridge, was an intense believer in the right of the individual to shape his own life and a bitter opponent of any form of bureaucratic control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Kemp</span>

Sandra Kemp is an academic and curator with a background in English literature. She is the director, The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre at University of Lancaster and visiting professor in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London. She was previously a research associate at IMAGES&CO, and has held leadership roles in the university and cultural sectors, most recently as senior research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum, head of college, London College of Communication and director of research at the Royal College of Art (RCA). She curated the Wellcome Trust-sponsored exhibition Future Face: Image, Identity, Innovation at the Science Museum, with a related programme at the National Portrait Gallery, a film festival and a debate on BBC Radio Five Live. She has also published and given public lectures in the fields of fiction, literary theory and cultural studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard MacCormac</span> Modernist architect

Sir Richard Cornelius MacCormac CBE, PPRIBA, FRSA, RA, was a modernist English architect and the founder of MJP Architects.

<i>The Fountain of Indolence</i> Painting by J. M. W. Turner

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References

  1. 'List of Accredited museums in the UK, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man', accessed 15 September 2021
  2. "Actor Greg Wise visits Lancaster University Ruskin role" BBC. Retrieved 2016-06-19.
  3. 'Lancaster University Staff Profile', accessed 15 September 2021
  4. "New Brantwood exhibition 'measures' Ruskin's love of Venice" Westmoreland Gazette. Retrieved 2016-06-19.
  5. "Turner painting known as Ruskin's View sold for £217,250" BBC. Retrieved 2016-06-19.
  6. "'Unparalleled collection' of Ruskin paintings and documents secured for the nation". National Heritage Memorial Fund . Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  7. 1 2 "The Ruskin Library and Museum, Lancaster". Lancashire Past. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  8. "Richard MacCormac, former Riba president, 1938-2014" Financial Times. Retrieved 2016-06-19.

Further reading