Riah King-Wall

Email: gyrkw@leeds.ac.uk
Thesis title: Made to Measure: public art value measurement strategies and their impact on local government arts policy and programming

Profile

Originally hailing from New Zealand, I am a full-time PhD candidate exploring strategies used to measure and assess value in public art practice. My research compares the ways small to medium local councils in the United Kingdom and New Zealand are currently using evaluation methods to enhance and advocate for the work they do in public art management, and how this is reflected in related policy and ongoing council-led programming.

I graduated as a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) in 2013 at Massey University Wellington, New Zealand. I then went on to complete Masters in Museum and Heritage Studies at Victoria University of Wellington in 2016. Since 2014 I have worked in museums, galleries and local government organisations in areas including public programming, curation, arts management, event management and creative industry development.

I am funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.

Research interests

Public Art
Placemaking
Local government
Arts policy
Social justice
Perceptions of value in the arts
Creative programme evaluation and measurement

This project is supervised by Dr. Martin Zebracki and Prof. Robert Vanderbeck (School of Geography, University of Leeds).

Qualifications

MMHS, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (2016)
BFA (Hons), Massey University, New Zealand (2013)

Research groups and institutes

Social Justice, Cities, Citizenship