HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art

HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art

Research profile

HEART focuses on research within three main areas: Art historical research, which covers the museum's research in the collection and special exhibitions, Materiality studies, which covers a wider field of interdisciplinary research within art history, 

curating and conservation, and Educational research, which covers new knowledge about the museum as an external learning space.

The museum works with three types of research:

Art historical research: Research based on the museum's subject area; visual arts and design-related forms of expression from 1945 to the present day. The art historical research also covers the knowledge created for the museum's exhibitions, published in exhibition catalogs with peer-reviewed articles by both internal and external researchers.

Materiality studies: Interdisciplinary research within art history, curating and conservation. In the period 2024-2027, the museum houses the PhD project Into the Everyday - the hidden potential of materials, which aims to examinate the museum's collection and the significance of the materials for the reception of the works. The project is a collaboration between Aarhus University, Kunstkonserveringen Vest (Art Conservation West) and HEART.

Educational research: From 2023 HEART will examine the museum as an external learning space for children aged 3-6 years in order to strengthen and qualify educational and experience-based programs targeted at children in day care through user-generated data with the project Home and Away.