The Royal Danish Academy posts vacant PhD scholarship in exhibition and museum design and architecture

The Royal Danish Academy invites applications for a PhD position in exhibition and museum design and architecture under the topic: The Intimate Gallery.

The PhD scholarship is to be filled by September 1st, 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Framework
This call is for a 3 year fully funded PhD Scholarship integrated within Centre for Interior Studies under Institute of Architecture and Design at the Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation and in collaboration with The Hirschsprung Collection. The scholarship is funded by the New Carlsberg Foundation. The PhD student will be enrolled at the Royal Danish Academy’s PhD school and will be supervised by Associate Professor in exhibition and interior design Ane Pilegaard and Curator at The Hirschsprung Collection, Art Historian, PhD Rasmus Kjærboe.

General Project Summary
The overall aim of the project will be to investigate the intimate, affective and home-like art gallery spaces that arose at the same time as – and as a response to – the modern universal museum. The furnished, often initially private, art museum and picture gallery with home-like interior décor, form an important counter-category to the large, public museums that were established in large numbers in the decades around 1900. The project will examine the intimate gallery as an important historical museum space category and, furthermore, explore its potential within contemporary and future exhibition design and museum architecture.

PhD Focus
The intimate gallery has several roots: in the Princely chambers and study collections, in the early commercial picture galleries and art associations, and in the private collections established within the homes of the bourgeoisie in the 18th century. Sir John Soane’s Museum in London (1837) is an early example of the fusion between home and museum, and many other examples exist across Europe and the United States. With an outset in The Hirschsprung Collection as the project’s primary case, the research will explore the intimate gallery as a museum space category from a national and/or international perspective. Thus, involving supplementary cases from within the Danish and, preferably, international museum landscapes.

The project should address following questions:

• What characterizes the intimate gallery as a museum space category as it evolved from approx. 1850 to 1950 – seen from a historical, typological, aesthetical and possibly phenomenological and/or functional perspective?

• How can the intimate gallery be understood within contemporary museum practice, and how can it inspire future museum practice and design?

The project combines a historical and contemporary focus. However, it is possible to place more emphasis on one over the other. For instance, the project can take an outset in the historical perspective by basing its research on archive studies, while also relating the research results to contemporary museum practice and design. Or the project can evolve around practice-based research, for instance in relation to contemporary exhibition making at The Hirschsprung Collection, while also contextualizing the research historically. These are just examples of how the project may be contrived.

Eligibility criteria
You must hold an educational degree equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (180 ECTS/3 FTE BSc + 120 ECTS/2 FTE MSc) in spatial design, architecture, art history or museology or other degree of equivalent relevancy is required, and conducted studies must include the area of exhibition and museum design/architecture. It is an advantage if you are able to read/learn to read Danish in order to include text documents on The Hirschsprung Collection’s original design in the project.

If you have completed an educational degree abroad, it will be assessed by the Danish Agency for International Education before enrolment and employment can take place. The Royal Danish Academy will assist with the assessment process if you are selected for the scholarship. Practical information can be found at http://ufm.dk/en/education-and-institutions/recognition-and-transparency/recognition-guide.

Terms of employment
Enrolment takes place with a view to obtaining a PhD degree and leads to salaried fulltime employment for a period of three years in accordance with the agreement between the Danish Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations, AC, protocol on graduate fellowships (annex 5). The salary consists of a seniority-based base salary and a non-pensionable allowance.

The PhD program is structured under the provisions of Ministerial Order on the PhD Program at the Universities and Certain Higher Artistic Educational Institutions (PhD Order) no. 1039 of 27 August 2013 issued by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education regarding PhD programs and PhD degrees. This executive order is found at https://ufm.dk/en/legislation/prevailing-laws-and-regulations/education/files/engelsk-ph-d-bekendtgorelse.pdf

Application requirements
There are no application forms. Applications must be written in Danish or English. Applications are submitted electronically and must include:

• A reflection on the stated aims of the project in the form of proposed theoretical and methodological orientations in relation to existing research and museum practice. Proposals of supplementary cases and principal research methods. The choice of supplementary cases and methods must be motivated and explained in relation to the stated aims of the project and The Hirschsprung Collection case. (max. 5 regular standard pages)
• CV.
• Documentation of educational merits, other qualifications, and previous activities.
• A list of published papers/publications (if applicable).
• A list of anticipated publications and dissemination venues for the project.
• A portfolio of previous works and studies completed.

Please submit application online via the “Apply for position” button no later than Sunday, 16 March 2025. For further information about the application requirements, please contact HR employee Sine Kildevang Madsen by email [email protected]. If you have questions concerning the academic project please write to Associate Professor Ane Pilegaard ([email protected]) or Curator, PhD Rasmus Kjærboe ([email protected]).

Application material received after the deadline will not be taken into consideration.

Anyone who meets the requirement of an academic degree at a graduate level is encouraged to apply for the scholarship regardless of age, gender, race, religion, or ethnicity.

Assessment and hiring procedure
The scholarship is advertised in accordance with the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science’s “Executive Order of 12 April 2019 on the employment of artistic and scientific staff at the higher artistic educational institutions within the remit of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science”.

After the application deadline, in consultation with the appointment committee, the head of the institute will select a number of applicants for academic assessment by an unbiased expert committee. Applicants are selected on the basis of which applicants are found by the appointment committee to best meet the overall criteria set out in this call. The appointment committee is made up of representatives from the Royal Danish Academy and The Hirschsprung Collection.

All applicants will be informed as to whether or not their application will proceed to the next stage of the selection procedure, and those selected will be informed of the composition of the expert committee. The expert committee will the assess the selected applicants for the scholarship with focus on the abovementioned research area, techniques, skills and requirements. The committee will conclude whether each applicant is qualified. The assessed applicants will get opportunity to comment on their assessment.

After the assessment process the appointment committee will decide amongst the qualified applicants to whom the scholarship should be offered. The appointment committee can choose to interview one or more of the qualified applicants.

Further information
General information about PhD study is available at the PhD School’s website: https://royaldanishacademy.com/en/phd-and-research-school

About the Royal Danish Academy
The Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design and Conservation is an internationally recognised academy that educates professionally creative graduates to the highest level and develops new knowledge that creates value for society and the labour market. The Royal Danish Academy is a public institution under the Ministry of Higher Education and Science and has approximately 1,700 students and 350 full-time staff equivalents. Read more about the Royal Danish Academy on our website www.royaldanishacademy.com.

About The Hirschsprung Collection
The Hirschsprung Collection in the centre of Copenhagen was founded by art collectors Pauline and Heinrich Hirschsprung and first opened its doors to the public in 1911. Today, the museum presents a select overview of Danish art of the nineteenth and early twentieth century alongside popular temporary exhibitions on highlights of Nordic art. The museum has a strong research profile in Danish art history, and the collection boasts a number of highlights of Danish art history together with a large archive related to artists and the museum’s history.

About Centre for Interior Studies
Centre for Interior Studies explores the interior as a hybrid and multifaceted phenomenon which, in addition to its physical, spatial and design related aspects, is also shaped by and shapes social, cultural, aesthetic, political, economic, religious, virtual, etc. aspects. We explore the interior from both historical (architecture and design), morphological and anthropological perspectives, and incorporates perspectives from the humanities and social sciences. The researchers at Centre for Interior Studies are predominantly affiliated with the international master’s programme Spatial Design, which works with architecture and design from an interior perspective. Read more about the centre on our webpage: https://kglakademi.dk/da/center-interior-studies/about-center-interior-studies

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Lokation: Holmen