The Centre's Aims
To consolidate and expand the critical mass of expertise in surrealist studies at the partner institutions, giving direction and impetus to a vital and flourishing area of research of relevance to many different humanities disciplines.
To promote research excellence, formulating new problems for scholarship on the dada and surrealist avant-gardes, and evolving new cross-disciplinary methodologies to solve them.
To produce resources and materials of service to the academic community at large, such as databases and translations.
To facilitate collaboration between academic art historians and museum curators, and to foster mutual respect for their particular qualities and skills.
To involve other surrealist scholars in the UK, artists and theorists with an interest in surrealism and dada, with benefits extending well beyond the community of researchers at the partner institutions.
To provide a stimulating research environment for postgraduate students through training sessions and access to Tate collections, extensive library and archive resources. A vital research culture includes PhD students as well as staff.
To raise the international profile of surrealist studies in the UK and develop links with surrealist scholars and museum curators in France, the USA, Latin America, Japan and elsewhere.