About
SRU History
The Sainsbury Research Unit was established in 1986 with an endowment from the Robert & Lisa Sainsbury Art Trust. After donating their art collection to the University of East Anglia, and funding, with their son David, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (opened 1978), they realised there was strong student interest in those areas of their collection which were not covered by conventional art history teaching. They also became aware that there was no specialist department in the UK, or elsewhere, that focused on teaching and research in the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. They decided to establish one, based in the Sainsbury Centre and adjacent to the gallery displays, to provide opportunities for study and research.
The SRU began operations in 1988 with two faculty, a librarian and a part-time secretary, teaching an MA course and contributing to undergraduate teaching in the then School of Fine Arts and Music. In 1987 Robert and Lisa Sainsbury had purchased the specialist library of the late John Donne, of over 6,500 volumes, to be the foundation for the library of the new department, now called the Robert Sainsbury Library.
In 1989, with the realisation that the original Sainsbury Centre building was already too small for its required functions (there was no conservation lab and limited storage), as well as to house the SRU and its library, the Sainsbury family funded the Crescent Wing extension, also designed by Foster and Partners, which opened in 1992 to provide additional Sainsbury Centre facilities and accommodation for SRU faculty and a seminar room. With further assistance from the Sainsbury family, the SRU has increased its staff and expanded its operations, adding a PhD programme in 1989 and later offering Visiting Fellowships.
The SRU now has six faculty, three library staff and two administrative/secretarial staff, and continues to run its MA course and a PhD programme, with around 15-18 doctoral students at any one time. The SRU hosts two Visiting Fellowships a year and faculty undertake research projects, curate exhibitions and contribute substantially to the REF in Art History and Area Studies. An excellent book by the architectural historian Witold Rybczynski, The Biography of a Building: How Robert Sainsbury and Norman Foster Built a Great Museum (2011), provides a history of the Sainsbury Centre and its different occupants.
Location
The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
The Sainsbury Centre, which opened in 1978, was Norman Foster’s first public building, prefiguring Stansted Airport and many other iconic buildings around the world. It was designed to house and display the Sainsbury Collection, principally in the large ‘Living Area’ gallery, intended to have the ambience of the display of artworks in the Sainsbury’s own home. This placed an emphasis on 3-dimensional presentation in island display cases to allow optimal viewing for study and enjoyment. Works of art are arranged in cultural/geographical zones, with European modern art distributed around the zones. There is no route, no hierarchy and no story of progress, only a celebration of creativity from many periods and many regions around the world.
The Sainsbury Centre also has a suite of galleries for special exhibitions in the Crescent Wing. The building houses Sainsbury Centre staff, UEA’s department of Art History and World Art Studies, the Sainsbury Research Unit and two cafés, open to the public. The SRU’s Robert Sainsbury Library and student study area are adjacent to the Living Area, providing a uniquely inspirational environment for study. Witold Rybczynski’s The Biography of a Building: How Robert Sainsbury and Norman Foster Built a Great Museum (2011) provides a history of the Sainsbury Centre.
Norwich
The University campus is located in parkland on the western outskirts of Norwich, a historic English city with a magnificent medieval cathedral and Norwich Castle Museum, based in a Norman castle in the centre of the city. There are frequent bus services to the city centre and the railway station. Cambridge and London are easily accessible by train, coach or car. Norwich has several theatres and cinemas and is famous for its numerous medieval churches and the quality of its pubs and cafés.
The Sainsbury Centre. Photo by Andy Crouch.
Collaborations
The SRU collaborates closely with its sister Sainsbury organisations at the University of East Anglia, the Sainsbury Centre and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC), which has its main premises in the Cathedral Close in the centre of Norwich. The SRU also has a global network of collaborators, individual and institutional, with whom we work on research projects, exhibitions and other initiatives. Information on these can be found under Research and People on this website. Many of these collaborators are alumni of SRU programmes who now hold academic and museum posts worldwide.
Facilities
SRU Library and Office Facilities
The SRU’s Robert Sainsbury Library is one of the foremost libraries of its kind, with multi-disciplinary holdings that cover the three regions. The library and its staff support teaching and research by all members of the SRU, as well as by UEA staff, students and the public.
Postgraduate students, MA and PhD, have personal desks and study spaces on the mezzanine above the library and overlooking the Living Area displays of the Sainsbury Centre. This provides a remarkable and inspirational working environment. All students have access to free photocopying, printing and other office services.
SRU Teaching Collection
The SRU has its own teaching collection of over 250 items, much of it displayed in the SRU seminar room in the Sainsbury Centre, which is available for handling, study and use in the annual MA display-case project. This collection has resulted from donations from private individuals and from the Melanesian Missionary Society, who in 1991 were dispersing the remnants of their collections assembled by missionaries working in the Western Pacific region since the mid-nineteenth century. The SRU Teaching Collection is strongest in Oceanic and African material.