Lancaster, England, United Kingdom
Professor Sandra Kemp is Director of The Ruskin Museum and Research Institute at Lancaster University and Visiting Professor at Imperial College London. She is a researcher, writer and curator with a strong record of leadership, income generation and innovation in the university and cultural sectors and an experienced leader of academic, public and corporate programmes. In 2019, she led the successful fund-raising campaign to secure The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection - the world-leading collection of works by the epoch-defining writer, artist and environmentalist, John Ruskin (1819-1900) - for Lancaster University, via the largest grant awarded in 2019 by the National Heritage Memorial Fund. With an international track record across the arts and sciences, Sandra leads a team of researchers at The Ruskin Research Institute. Her own cross-disciplinary work is centred in museum collections and practice – including object-orientated knowledge – and in theoretical and technical enquiry. She collaborates with museums internationally to research and curate exhibitions, and to develop The Ruskin’s digital platforms, utilising both augmented and virtual reality. Recent collaborations have included ‘Proust and the Arts’ at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid (2025) and, in 2024, with the Museo San Domenica in Italy, the Musée d'art moderne André Malraux – MuMa in France, the National Library in Scotland, Brantwood in England and the Huntington Art Museum in the USA. From 2021-24, Sandra curated the ‘John Ruskin in the Age of Science’ exhibition series with The Royal Society. Throughout her career Sandra has combined appointments in universities and museums, including the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Southampton and Imperial College London; and the V&A, National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. She founded the Research Department at the Royal College of Art. Before joining Lancaster, Sandra’s exhibitions included ‘Future Face: Image, Identity, Innovation’, funded by the Wellcome Trust at the Science Museum. She coordinated the V&A research for an exhibition and publications on the international legacy of arts and crafts, and for the comparative historical museum collections’ project: ‘Universal Histories: Universal Museums’. She is a member of the international jury of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and consults for international organisations on issues relating to heritage in conflict zones, collection preservation, and digitisation. She also investigates works of art for authorship and provenance.
The Ruskin's Collection provides a unique perspective on the foundations of 20th and 21st century artistic, social and political developments and is of outstanding research interest on account of the range and importance of the materials it contains. As a future-orientated thinker who was deeply committed to social and cultural values, Ruskin's writings on European visual arts, well-being, conservation, political economy and social welfare spoke powerfully to the 19th century, but were prescient for our own. The collection provides the ideal locus for collaborative cross campus and cross disciplinary research. This will be the focus of my role as Director of The Ruskin Research — Museum and Research Institute.
My Visiting Professorship at Imperial College follows my four year Senior Research Investigator role in the ICL Department of Materials at Imperial College, and my teaching and interdisciplinary research relating to design, material science and computer science, in partnership with science-based industries, government agencies, and the creative and cultural industries. I am a member of the international jury of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/sandra.kemp My current research and teaching at Imperial College builds on collaborative interdisciplinary industry-related research and its commercial exploitation in areas including design, material science and computer science. This developed as part of my Royal College of Art (RCA) role as Research Director from 2000-2008. My research includes examining cross-disciplinary understanding of futures thinking and visualisation in partnership with science-based industries, government agencies, and the creative and cultural industries: in particular, how expertise in predicting and shaping the future is mobilised and materialised; and how fundamental notions of agency and risk create a platform for debate about ethical issues.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/sandra-kemp/ My role in the V&A Research Department includes leading collaborative research on the history of museums in the imagination of futures. My current projects involve V&A research in partnership with the Bard Graduate Center, New York, for an exhibition and related publications on John Lockwood Kipling. I have British Council funding for research into the archives and collections of the Lahore Museum and to organise a symposium on John Lockwood Kipling. Following successful delivery of the research project on on future thinking and visualisation funded through the AHRC 'Care for the Future' programme (http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-future-is-our-business-a-visual-history-of-future-expertise/)., I am developing international research collaboration between museums and galleries, universities, industry and government agencies on how cultural institutions can use the past to shape our ideas and provoke debate about the future.
Working in the Innovation Unit on the evaluation of cross–sector research tools and working methodologies within the EU-funded FP7 R&D projects, TELL ME and VITAL. Also working on the development of future projects for submission to Horizon 2020 large grant programme relating to extending interdisciplinary methodologies.
Responsible for strategic leadership and operational management at both University and College level as a member of the UAL Executive Board. Tasked with and succeeded in tackling an unsustainable financial deficit and restructuring the College’s academic portfolio, leading to a significant increase in NSS ratings in 2011. Led relaunch for the final degree shows, shortlisted for the Design Museum’s Brit Insurance Awards in 2011.