The Ruskin – a future focussed on research and engagement
7 June 2024
Renovations will soon be made to future-proof The Ruskin building so it can continue to meet University Museum accreditation standards, allowing an internationally significant collection to come home to Lancaster.
The Ruskin building on campus is home to The Ruskin Museum and Research Centre. Its Whitehouse Collection is the largest collection of works of John Ruskin (1819-1900), an epoch-defining critic, artist, environmentalist and social thinker of the Victorian era.
The Ruskin closed its doors to visitors in 2021 for necessary refurbishment. Since then, some works from its collection have been on external loan, while other works have been secured at a specialist storage site in London. Part of the Collection remains on permanent display at Brantwood, Ruskin’s former home on Coniston Water.
Recently, Lancaster University Council approved a new project which will see refurbishment of The Ruskin building so it continues to meet the set of exacting security, environmental and accessibility standards required to house a collection of national status in a University Museum – placing The Ruskin alongside University Museums elsewhere such as the Manchester Museum, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. These refurbishments will enable The Ruskin’s Collection to return to Bailrigg while simultaneously becoming more accessible for ‘glocal’ audiences.
Meanwhile, under the leadership of the Director of the Ruskin, Professor Sandra Kemp, significant profiling of the Collection has continued: Ruskin’s works have been displayed nationally and internationally, the collection is being digitised and conserved, and its research and curatorial partnerships and activities expanded.
National and international exhibitions
Since closing for refurbishments, works from The Ruskin’s Whitehouse Collection have been displayed in national and international exhibitions curated and co-curated by Professor Kemp.
Locally, exhibitions at Brantwood, Ruskin’s former home on Coniston Water, mapped his exploration of science, art and climate change. Nationally and internationally, works have been loaned to major museums and exhibitions, including the Museum of Modern Art, Le Havre, France; Musei di San Domenico, Forli and Pietra di Venezia, Italy; Museo Nacional Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain; Delaware Art Museum and The Huntington Library, Los Angeles, USA; York Art Gallery and Lakeland Arts Galleries, and the National Library of Scotland.
The Ruskin is continuing to develop its international profile by cultivating new partnerships with further major institutions. Works from the Collection will continue to be loaned to external exhibitions over 2024-25.
Opening doors for teaching and learning, research and engagement
The move of the Whitehouse Collection to a temporary art-storage facility in London was an opportunity for The Ruskin to open up its research, digitisation and conservation activities. Since the purchase of the Collection in 2019, The Ruskin has hosted curators and researchers from the UK, Europe and the USA. The move to temporary storage in 2021 has also allowed crucial remedial conservation work to begin on elements of the collection, starting with Ruskin’s lecture diagrams and glass slides.
In the digital space, The Ruskin has been building a new Digital Collections Platform and a new website, allowing users to view the Collection online. Displaying the Collection online has also enabled Lancaster University to commence an ambitious project to link Ruskin collections across the world, including those found at Harvard and Oxford Universities.
Back in Lancaster, The Ruskin has partnered with the University’s Innovation Team to design its first ever VR-AR experiences, allowing users to interact with drawings, sketchbooks, paintings and other works in virtual and augmented reality environments. The VR-AR experience has potential as both an interactive exhibition as in the current exhibition at the National Library of Scotland, and as tool for teaching and learning.
Lancaster’s student members of the Innovation Team were actively involved in developing the VR-AR experience, showing interest in and passion for the collection. The upcoming renovations present further opportunities to engage Lancaster students with the collection in order to supplement and enrich their studies.
The research appeal of the collection
In 2019, Lancaster University and the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) announced the purchase of the Ruskin Whitehouse Collection, securing an unparalleled collection of Ruskin’s paintings, drawings, books, manuscripts, photographs and daguerreotypes. The purchase ensured that the world’s largest Ruskin collection would remain close to his home in Cumbria, while further establishing Lancaster’s reputation on the global stage.
The collection carries significance across a wide range of research fields with enormous potential for cross-disciplinary research. It documents almost a century of British cultural, economic, and social history through the viewpoint of a prominent critic of the era. It offers insights into artistic, social, scientific and political developments that helped to define modern Britain. Scholars of Ruskin himself will find a comprehensive account of his thinking and his contemporary reception.
The collection is routinely consulted by international scholars from across both the arts and sciences. The Ruskin has worked with Lancaster University Students’ Union to use the Collection with schools and colleges in the local area as a part of the Morecambe Bay Curriculum, the Cumbria Teachers Network and Eden Project Morecambe.
The planned improvements to The Ruskin building will enable the collection to become more accessible locally and internationally, while protecting its significant collection for future generations.
More information
You can find out more about The Ruskin, its collection, and the planned works at www.lancaster.ac.uk/the-ruskin