ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú

Skip to main content

Fiona Candlin

Positions held:
  • Professor of Museology, School of Historical Studies
Email
  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Fiona Candlin is a museologist who has written extensively on small, independent museums; the twentieth-century museums boom; data collection in the museum sector; and sensory history. She is director of the , in which capacity she collaborates with a team of computer and data scientists, geographers, and historians.

    Fiona worked for Tate Liverpool, and the School of Architecture and Art History at Liverpool University, before being appointed to a lectureship jointly held by The British Museum and ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú. In this role she established the World Arts and Artefacts Certificate programme, which offered specialist collections-based teaching at numerous London museums.ÌýShe subsequently developed and was programme director for the MA Museum Cultures.

    Highlights

    • Fiona was awarded an Arctic Circle Artist and Scientist Expedition Residency forÌýautumn 2024. SheÌýsailed around the Svalbard archipelago writing about the world's most northern museums.Ìý

    • The Mapping Museums LabÌýhave launched a new enabling users to access data on which museums have closed in the UK since 2000, why they closed and what happened to their collection. The app is accompanied by the report

    • In 2023 Candlin secured a second £1million AHRC grantÌýfor a project entitled 'Museum Closure in the UK 2000-2025'. The Mapping Museums Lab will investigate the afterlife of collections, find out if museum exhibits are scrapped, sold, stored, or re-used, and examine ‘outreach’ and temporary museums, thereby bringing concepts of permanence and loss into question.

    • The Mapping MuseumsÌýLabÌýwere awardedÌý£190,000 COVID rapid response funding for 'UK Museums during the Pandemic'. Beginning in January 2021, theÌýproject used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to assess museum closure, risk and resilience during and after theÌýpandemic. Candlin was Principal Investigator.Ìý

    • In 2016 Fiona Candlin and Alex Poulovassilis Professor of Computer Science at ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú were awarded £1,000,000 for the Mapping MuseumsÌýresearch project. The team collected information on over 4,000 museums, and built a database that allows that information to be browsed, searched, and visualised.ÌýThe database is publicly accessible and free to use.

    • You can listen to Fiona talking about her interview-based work with people who set up their own museums on the

    • In 2018 the Bakelite Museum in Somerset closed its doors to the public. Fiona wasÌýinvited to film its final days and she worked with the Derek Jarman lab to make ÌýÌý

    Visiting posts

    • Visiting Professor, KonstLab, Gothenburg University, 01 October 2005 to 01 September 2007

    ORCID

  • Research

    Research

    Research overview

    Ìý

    Candlin leads the Mapping Museums Lab, anÌýinter-disciplinary teamÌýwhose work combines quantitative and qualitative research. TheÌýlarge scale project, Mapping Museums: the history and geography of the UK sector 1960-2000Ìýgenerated a searchable database containing information on over 4,000 museums. This resource then formed the bedrock for the group's subsequent projects: 'Museums in the Pandemic: Risk, resilience and closure', and 'Museum Closure in the UK 2000-2025'. She has been awarded significant funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; and the Leverhulme Trust amongst others.

    Candlin's most recent book is Stories From Small Museums (2022), an oral history of the late twentieth century UK museums boom. Her previous work includes Micromuseology: An analysis of small independent museumsÌýand Art, Museums, and Touch, both funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and The Object Reader, with Raiford Guins. She is currently working on a new book provisionally titled 'Stories of Closed Museums'.

    Research projects

    Abstract

    Museum Closure is the current Mapping Museums Lab research project. It examinesÌýthe geographic distribution of closure, types of closure (e.g., whether museums are mothballed or disbanded), documents the flows of objects and knowledge from museums in the aftermath of closure, and investigates the afterlife of collections, find out if museum exhibits are scrapped, sold, stored, or re-used, and examine ‘outreach’ and temporary museums. Above all, we aim at critically reassessing notions of permanence and loss within the museums sector.

    Outcomes

    THe allows users to access data on which museums have closed in the UK from 2000-2025, why they closed and what happened to the collections.Ìý

    UK Museums during the COVID-19 crisis: Assessing risk, closure, and resilience.

    Abstract

    Museums in the Pandemic investigated how ‘big data techniques’ can inform research into the UK museum sector. The project developed and used innovative web-scraping technologies to document and assess museum opening, closure, and activity during the pandemic.

    Outcomes

    The project produced new software designed to better collect data on museums, we wrote providing updates on museum opening and closure during and after the pandemic, and published academic articles reflecting on methods and on the use of social media during the pandemic. The data we collected also enabled us to update and finalise our overview of changes within the UK museum sector from 1960-2020.Ìý

    Abstract

    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 extensive oral histories of the emergence ofÌýthe late twentieth-century museums boom.

    Ìý

    Outcomes

    Over the past five years the team has produced:Ìý

    A that contains information on the accreditation status, governance type, location, size, subject matter, years of opening (and where relevant) closing of over 4,000 museums open in the UK between 1960 and 2020.

    A web application that enables users to , , and this data in nuanced and precise ways.

    A that showcases the database and web application, and the resources linked to the project. These include curated pages on , detailed information on research methods, a glossary, Ìýabout the closure of the Bakelite Museum, 40+ ofÌýinterviewsÌýwith museum founders,Ìýdescriptions and images of the museums visited, and links to the project publications and .

    Mapping Museums at the Bishopsgate Institute, London

    ‘Mapping Museums: ’. A report designed for the organisations with responsibility for museums in the UK. It provides an explanatory guide to the data and details growth and closure with respect to governance, subject matter, accreditation status, size, location, and combinations thereof.

    that variously analyse the conceptualisation of museums and their classification, challenges in technical development, and findings from the data.

    , Manchester University Press, 2022

    Micromuseology

    Abstract

    AroundÌýhalf of the museums in the UK are small, independent and are run by volunteers. Even so museum studies typically concentrates on national institutions and larger independent museums. In this research Fiona investigated how ideas of curation, museum architecture, exhibits, and concepts of the public would change if Southport Lawnmower Museum or the Museum of Bakelite were taken as models instead of the British Museum or the Louvre.Ìý

    You can hear Fiona giving a Ìýas part of the Curating Now symposia in 2015

    Outcomes

    : An analysis of small independent museums. London: Bloomsbury, 2015

    , Bishopsgate Institute, London

    Art, Museums, and Touch

    Abstract

    This project grew out of earlier work on the use of touch as a means of educating blind and visually impaired visitors about artworks. Rather than only understand touch as a substitute for vision, Candlin investigated the various ways that touch had historically been used and conceptualised within arts museums and art history. The project investigated the rise and fall of connoisseurship,Ìýthe modernist valorisation of the artist's hand, the association of touch with female identity and sexuality, touch-based education, the regulation of audiences at participatory art events, and ideas of sensory deprivation.

    Outcomes

    . Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010

    , The Senses and Society. vol. 12 (3) 251–66, 2017.

    Lab information

    The Mapping Museums Lab is based at ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú, University of London and Kings College London. Combining computer science, data science, geography, and museum studies, it focuses on the history and conceptualisation of museums in the UK since 1960.Ìý

  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú:
    3

    I am happy to consider enquiries from potential doctoral students on topics relating to

    • micromuseums
    • independent museumsÌý
    • local authority museums
    • museum environments
    • museum closure
    • theories of objects

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • MARK LIEBENROOD
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Museum Closure in the UK, 1960-2010: Contexts and Microhistories
      Awarded:
      2022
    • MIKE BOWMAN
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor
      Title of thesis:
      Awarded:
      2022
    • NEIL HANDLEY
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor
      Title of thesis:
      Museums of the `new¿ medical professions in the 20th century
      Awarded:
      2022
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    • Liebenrood, Mark and Wright, George and Candlin, Fiona and Poulovassilis, Alex and Ballatore, Andrea and Wood, Peter (2026) . Journal of Open Humanities Data 12, ISSN 2059-481X.
    • Liebenrood, Mark and Ballatore, Andrea and Candlin, Fiona and Larkin, Jamie and Poulovassilis, Alex and Wood, Peter (2026) . Curator: The Museum Journal ISSN 2151-6952.
    • Candlin, Fiona and Ballatore, A. and Larkin, J. and Poulovassilis, A. and Katerinchuk, V. and Liebenrood, M. (2023) . Cultural Trends ISSN 0954-8963.
    • Candlin, Fiona and Ballatore, Andrea (2023) . Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 48 (1), pp. 213-229. ISSN 0020-2754.
    • Poulovassilis, Alexandra and Katerinchuk, Valeri and Candlin, Fiona (2023) . Journal of Systems and Information Technology ISSN 1328-7265.
    • Candlin, Fiona and Larkin, Jamie and Ballatore, Andrea and Poulovassilis, Alexandra (2020) . Cultural Trends 29 (1), pp. 50-67. ISSN 0954-8963.
    • Poulovassilis, Alexandra and Larsson, Nick and Candlin, Fiona and Larkin, Jamie and Ballatore, Andrea (2020) . ACM Journal of Computing and Cultural Heritage 12 (4), pp. 1-27. ISSN 1556-4673.
    • Candlin, Fiona and Poulovassilis, Alexandra (2020) . Museum Management and Curatorship 35 (4), pp. 446-459. ISSN 0964-7775.
    • Candlin, Fiona and Larkin, Jamie (2020) . Museum and Society 18 (2), pp. 115-131. ISSN 1479-8360.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2017) . Senses and Society 12 (3), pp. 251-266. ISSN 1745-8927.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2012) . Museum and Society 10 (1), pp. 28-41. ISSN 1479-8360.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2008) . Senses and Society 3 (3), pp. 277-292. ISSN 1745-8927.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2004) . Body & Society 10 (1), pp. 71-90. ISSN 1357-034X.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2003) . The International Journal of Art & Design 22 (1), pp. 100-110. ISSN 1476-8062.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2001) . The International Journal of Art & Design Education 20 (3), pp. 302-310. ISSN 1476-8062.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2000) . International Journal of Art and Design Education 19 (1), pp. 96-101. ISSN 1476-8062.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2000) . Working Papers in Art and Design 1 (1), ISSN 1466-4917.

    Book

    • Candlin, Fiona and Butler, Toby and Watts, J. (2022) . Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526166883.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2015) . London, UK: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781474254977.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2009) . Rethinking Art's Histories. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719079337.
    • Candlin, Fiona and Guins, R. (2008) . In Sight: Visual Culture. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415452304.

    Book section

    • Candlin, Fiona (2018) . 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) . In: Dent, Peter (ed.) Sculpture and Touch. Subject/Object: New Studies in Sculpture. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. pp. 181-196. ISBN 9781409412311.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2013) . 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) . In: Seijdel, J. and Melis, L. and Lütticken, S. (eds.) Open 23 Autonomy. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Nai Publishers. ISBN 9789056628581.
    • Candlin, Fiona and Guins, R. (2009) . In: Candlin, Fiona and Guins, R. (eds.) The Object Reader. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415452304.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2009) . In: Candlin, Fiona and Guins, R. (eds.) The Object Reader. In Sight: Visual Culture. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415452304.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2008) . In: Hickman, R. (ed.) Research In Art & Design Education : Issues and Exemplars. Bristol, UK: Intellect Ltd.. pp. 99-108. ISBN 9781841501994.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2008) . In: Chatterjee, H. (ed.) Touch in Museums: Policy and Practice in Object Handling. Oxford, UK: Berg. ISBN 9781847882387.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2001) . 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) . 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 (2025) . Political Ecologies seminar series, 2025, London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2025) . Mapping Museums in the UK, 2025, Bloomington, U.S.
    • Candlin, Fiona (2024) . Mapping Museums, 2024, Manchester, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2023) . Making Museum Professionals Workshop - Museum Work: Hierarchies and Barriers, Exclusion and Inclusion, 2023, London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2022) . The UK Museums Boom (and what happened next), 2022, London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2022) . Critical Heritage and Social Justice Workshop, 2022, London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2021) . Museum Networks and Museum History, Museums and Galleries History group conference, 2021, Online
    • Candlin, Fiona (2019) . Small Museums in a Global context symposium, 2019, London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2019) . Houses of Politicians Symposium, 2019, Manchester, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2018) . Spatial Humanities conference, 2018, Sheffield, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2018) . Digital Humanities Conference, 2018, Lancaster, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2016) . Im/Material: Encounters within the Creative Arts Archive, 2016, London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2016) . Conventions of Proximity in Art, Theatre and Performance, 2016, London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2016) . Pitt Rivers Museum Research Seminar in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology, 2016, Oxford, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2015) . Archives and Society, 2015, London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2015) . Archives Group Annual Conference, 2015, London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2014) . The Archive and Domestic and Private Space, 2014, Royal College of Art
    • Candlin, Fiona (2014) . Curating the Archive, 2014, London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2012) . New Approaches to the Past: Methodological Innovation in Heritage Research seminar series, 2012, University College London
    • Candlin, Fiona (2011) . Seminar Series, School of Graduate Studies in association with the Concordia Sensoria Research Team, 2011, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
    • Candlin, Fiona (2011) . American Anthropological Association Conference, 2011, Montreal, Canada
    • Candlin, Fiona (2011) . Night Shift Seminar Series, 2011, ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú, University of London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2011) . Visual Impairment Training Day, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 2011, Edinburgh, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2010) . ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú Symposia, 2010, ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú, University of London, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2010) . College Art Association Conference, 2010, Chicago, USA
    • Candlin, Fiona (2009) . Research Seminar Series, 2009, Reading University, Reading, UK
    • Candlin, Fiona (2009) . College Art Association conference, 2009, Los Angeles, USA
    • Candlin, Fiona (2008) . Touch and Sculpture, 2008, The Courtauld Institute of Art
    • Candlin, Fiona . University of Essex, History of Art department seminar, Colchester, UK

    Other

    • Candlin, Fiona and Ballatore, Andrea and Liebenrood, Mark and Poulovassilis, Alex and Wood, Peter and Wright, George and Golovteeva, M. and Bonett, H. (2025) . London, UK: ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú, University of London.
    • Candlin, Fiona and Larkin, Jamie and Ballatore, Andrea and Poulovassilis, Alexandra (2020) . London, UK: ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú, University of London.
  • Business and community

    Business and community

    Outreach

    Mildmay Stories

    Candlin is a member of the Mildmay Social Club and Institute in Newington Green. In 2022 she successfully secured £10,000 funding fromÌýHistoric England's 'Everyday Histories' scheme for an oral history project. Between 2022-3 she organised oral history training for a team of volunteers who then conducted interviews with four generations of club members. She edited the transcripts and worked with a sound designer to produce an hour long audio history of the club. The launch of the oral history was accompanied by a series of photographs of the interview respondents.ÌýÌý

    The two 'bonus tracks' and photographs of the interview respondents are available on the club website.Ìý


    Bishopsgate Institute, London (ongoing)

    Candlin has worked with the Bishopsgate Institute Archive to develop three collections:

    The Mildmay Club Oral History (forthcoming) contains the audio recordings and transcripts of interviews conducted at a North London workingman’s club, and photographs of the interviewees.

    The Mapping Museums Oral Histories (2021) contains the audio recordings and transcripts of interviews that the Mapping Museums team conducted with founders of small museums.

    The Micromuseums Archive (2015) houses the ephemeral material on small independent museums that was collected by Candlin during her Micromuseology research.

    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 World Service: Pick of the World. March 2023

    ÌýOctober 2020

    , a film about the closure of the Bakelite Museum made with the Derek Jarman Institute

    Public presentations and lectures

    'The UK Museums Boom', Keynote speaker 2024 Irish Museums Association Annual Conference, Carlow, Ireland 2024

    'Big Stories from Small Museums', University of the Third Age, Crouch Hill London 2023

    'Mapping Museums and more', presentation to Arts Council England staff, 2023

    '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

    • Consultancies and expert advice

      Arts Council England: Invited member of Steering Committee on Data Collection