Dr Kathryn Brown
Small Group Project 2020-21
Private Power and Museums: Redressing the Impact of Inequality on Artworld Institutions
This interdisciplinary project brings together research groups based in the United Kingdom (Loughborough University) and France (University of Paris, 8) for the purpose of examining the impact of inequality on contemporary museum culture. Researchers drawn from art history, art market studies, and sociology will gather and analyse empirical data relating to the funding and governance structures of selected public and private museums in France and the United Kingdom. They will relate this information to current political debates about inequality and will propose solutions to a decline in the democratic accountability of museums.
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Biography
Kathryn Brown is Reader in Art Histories, Markets and Digital Heritage at the University of Loughborough. She holds a D.Phil in French Literature from the University of Oxford (Balliol College) and a PhD in Art History from the University of London (Birkbeck College). She is a Rhodes Scholar and, prior to a career in academia, was a corporate lawyer in the City of London. Over fourteen years, Kathryn led teams of lawyers on large-scale mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, and IPOs, becoming a partner in a leading international law firm in 2006. This background in corporate finance has spurred her research into contemporary art markets and art finance.
Kathryn is the author of five monographs and editor of six essay collections. She has also edited special issues of The Journal of Art Market Studies, The Journal of Visual Practice, and Nottingham French Studies. She has authored over fifty articles and book chapters.
Kathryn is the author of five monographs and editor of six essay collections. She has also edited special issues of The Journal of Art Market Studies, The Journal of Visual Practice, and Nottingham French Studies. She has authored over fifty articles and book chapters.
Biographical details correct as of 29.04.26