Faculty Insights

Research

The generation of knowledge and new ideas is a core component of faculty work, and research provides an essential underpinning to their commitment to delivering exceptional educational programs.

Reflecting a broad range of specialisms, faculty research spans scholarly publications, curatorial projects, and artistic practice. It engages fields including art and design history, curatorial studies, and the art and luxury business. Collectively, this work demonstrates the depth and diversity of our academic inquiry and its relevance to both higher education and industry.

Our faculty are dedicated to cultivating a sustainable, inclusive, and interdisciplinary research culture, one rooted in intellectual rigour, disciplinary excellence, and dynamic collaboration between academia and professional practice.

Our research priorities are to:

  • Foster an environment that supports thought leadership through intellectual rigour, creativity, and diverse critical perspectives
  • Lead and contribute meaningfully to debates shaping the art and luxury worlds, embracing global contexts and forward-looking ideas
  • Ensure that our scholarship reaches broad audiences and resonates both within and beyond academic settings
  • Build impactful collaborations with academic and industry partners to inform professional practice, enhance public understanding, and support the wider creative economy in the UK and internationally

Public Engagement

Art, Luxury, and Sustainability: Markets in Transition Conference

Sotheby’s Institute of Art is organised a conference exploring the challenges, contradictions, and opportunities that sustainability presents to the creative and luxury industries.

The conference took place at our London campus in Bedford Square, marking the publication of ‘Climate Action in the Art World‘ by Annabel Keenan. The book is part of the Hot Topics in the Art World series, edited by Institute faculty and published in association with Lund Humphries.

Explore Program, Abstracts, and Biographies

Dr Katie Hill, Academic Lead – Asia, curated the exhibition ‘Strange Wonders. Jizi and other Pioneers of Contemporary Ink’ at the SOAS Gallery

Dr Katie Hill, Academic Lead – Asia, curated the exhibition ‘Strange Wonders. Jizi and other Pioneers of Contemporary Ink’ at the SOAS Gallery, University of London. 12 October – 14 December 2024.

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Dan Vo, Global Academic Director Pre-College, in conversation with Rupert Everett

Watch Dan Vo, Global Academic Director Pre-College, in conversation with Rupert Everett about his book To the End of the World: Travels with Oscar Wilde at The British Library, 29 April 2023.

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Publications

Hot Topics in the Art World

The Hot Topics series a partnership between Sotheby’s Institute of Art and art-book publishers Lund Humphries, jointly edited by two of Sotheby’s Institutes’ London faculty: Jeffrey Boloten and Juliet Hacking.

The series has now grown to a total of 15 books, with further titles to be published in 2026. Recent publications include: Climate Action in the Art World and Towards the Ethical Art Museum.

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Pierre Saurisse - Performance in the Museum

Pierre Saurisse. Performance in the Museum. Lund Humphries, 2025

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Morgan Falconer - How to Be Avant-Garde: Modern Artists and the Quest to End Art

Morgan Falconer, How to Be Avant-Garde: Modern Artists and the Quest to End Art (W.W. Norton, 2025)

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Federica Carlotto - The Integration of NFTs in luxury brand and art collaborations

Federica Carlotto. “The Integration of NFTs in luxury brand and art collaborations.” In Handbook of Fashion Marketing and Digital Advances, edited by Olga Mittelfellner. De Gruyter Handbook Series, 2025.

Federica Carlotto - Luxury Brand and Art Collaborations. Postmodern Consumer Culture

Federica Carlotto, Luxury Brand and Art Collaborations. Postmodern Consumer Culture. Routledge, 2024.

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Melanie Fasche - Digital Art and Value Creation: Exploring Art Market Dynamics

Melanie Fasche. “Digital Art and Value Creation: Exploring Art Market Dynamics.” In Global Art Markets: History and Current Trends, edited by Iain Robertson, Luis, Afonso, Luis, and Derrick Chong. Routledge, 2024.

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Bernard Vere - Paris: City of Art

Bernard Vere. “Paris: City of Art.” In Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body, edited by Caroline Vout and Chris Young. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge/ Paul Holberton, 2024.

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Federica Carlotto - In Search of Lost Time

Federica Carlotto. “‘In Search of Lost Time’: Luxury Fashion’s emerging Circular Initiatives and the Shifting Temporal Features of Fashion Consumption”. In New Directions in Art, Fashion, and Wine: Sustainability, Digitalization, and Artification edited by A. Joy, 119- 137. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2023.

Marcus Verhagen - Viewing Velocities; Time in Contemporary Art

Marcus Verhagen. Viewing Velocities; Time in Contemporary Art. London: Verso Books, 2023.

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Barbara Lasic - A Treasure of Riches and Curiosities

Barbara Lasic. ‘’A Treasure of Riches and Curiosities’: Politics of Display at the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, 1680– 1789’ in P. Bianchi, Displaying Art in the Early Modern Period (1450–1750): Exhibiting Practices and Exhibition Spaces. Routledge, 2022.

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Juliet Hacking - Photography: The Whole Story

Juliet Hacking, Photography: The Whole Story. Thames and Hudson, 2021.

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Judith Prowda - Guiding a Collection Through the Thicket of Copyright Law

Judith Prowda, ‘Guiding a Collection Through the Thicket of Copyright Law’, in Michelle Bogre and Nancy Wolff (eds.) Companion to Copyright and Creativity in the 21st Century, Routledge, 2020.

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Judith Prowda - To Build a Foundation You Do Not Start with the Roof: The Battle Over the Estate of Franz West and Afterthoughts on Planning Ahead

Judith Prowda, ‘To Build a Foundation You Do Not Start with the Roof: The Battle Over the Estate of Franz West and Afterthoughts on Planning Ahead’ in Kathy Battista and Bryan Faller (eds.) Creative Legacies: Artists’ Estates and Foundations. Lund Humphries, 2020.

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Bernard Vere, Sport and modernism in the visual arts in Europe, c. 1909-39

Bernard Vere, Sport and modernism in the visual arts in Europe, c. 1909-39. Manchester University Press, 2018.

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Juliet Hacking - Photography and the Art Market

Juliet Hacking, Photography and the Art Market. Lund Humphries, 2018.

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Judith Prowda - Visual Arts and the Law: A Handbook for Professionals

Judith Prowda, Visual Arts and the Law: A Handbook for Professionals. Lund Humphries, 2013.

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Research Events

Performance in the Museum, October 8, 2025

Senior Lecturer Pierre Saurisse marked the launch of his new book Performance in the Museum, published by Lund Humphries, with a conversation alongside Catherine Wood, Director of Curatorial and Chief Curator at Tate Modern.

Pierre discussed his research into curating performance, and described his initial surprise at finding so little written on this subject.

As his research progressed, Pierre realised that the common assumption that performance and the museum are incompatible overlooked the broader context, especially works that critique institutional structures from within.

Drawing on his own memories, Pierre recalled visiting exhibitions on performance in Paris and Barcelona in 1994. He now sees how focused these exhibitions were on objects.

He concluded with an exploration of the afterlife of Xiao Lu’s Dialogue, tracing its evolution from the original 1989 performance to its various materialisations and reinterpretations over the years.

Reacting to the case of Dialogue, Catherine Wood reflected on the tensions that arise in museums when performance is represented through objects and information instead of live enactment.

She also explained how performance pushes the limits of the institution and grows its capacity to do things and to be more elastic.

Catherine and Pierre responded to a member of the audience who pointed out the hierarchy of materials in terms of cultural value and economy, concluding that performance represents challenges to the very idea of ownership.

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Curating and the Art Market Conference

“Curating and the Art Market Conference”
February 14-15, 2025
Sotheby’s Institute of Art-London

Intertropical Convergence: Gallerists Bridging the America

“Intertropical Convergence: Gallerists Bridging the Americas”
Sotheby’s Institute of Art-New York
April 29, 2025

Developing New Markets: Africa, China, India, and Latin America

“Developing New Markets: Africa, China, India, and Latin America”
Sotheby’s Institute of Art-New York
May 9, 2024

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