PhD Studentship: Take One Picture (1995-present): children’s art, creativity and learning, and the future of museum education

The University of Westminster and the National Gallery are delighted to invite applications for this Collaborative Doctoral Award, part of the National Gallery’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme funded by the AHRC.

Project Description

The project focuses on Take One Picture (TOP) – a national programme for primary schools launched in 1995 by the National Gallery (NG) – to develop a new children-led approach to museum education. It was inspired by the work of Windmill Hill Primary School, Swindon. Each year a single painting is selected from the NG collections. Primary school children and their teachers are then supported to investigate the focus painting and produce a response to its themes as well as its formal qualities using their own ideas and a wide range of materials and techniques. The culmination of each annual cycle of the programme sees a selection of the artworks produced displayed in the NG, which in 2025 included, for the first time, an Augmented Reality Experience trail outside the gallery.

Set up ‘to inspire a lifelong love of art and learning’, TOP has worked with thousands of children to date: this offers a rich dataset to help better understand the evolution of the programme and measure its impact and, in collaboration with present-day primary school children, rethink its future possibilities. The project will offer a blueprint for museum educators at the NG and beyond looking to empower younger generations to make art and culture their own. It does so by applying research methods from museum studies, psychology and educational sciences, and visual and material culture.

This project will be jointly supervised by:

Alison Hess (Lecturer in Museum Studies), Anna Doering (Reader in Psychology) and Sara Dominici (Reader in Photographic History and Visual Culture) at the University of Westminster, and Caroline Smith, Children & Young People’s Leadership Manager and Karen Eslea, Head of Learning and National Programmes at the National Gallery.

Eligibility

As well as the specific eligibility criteria required by the AHRC, applicants should ideally have or expect to receive a relevant Masters-level qualification in a relevant subject such as Museum Studies, Art History, Education Studies, Psychology or Visual and Material Culture Studies, or be able to demonstrate equivalent experience in a professional setting such as museums and galleries, particularly in education, learning or outreach teams, or educational settings, such as Primary teaching, educational policy or research.

Funding

Full-time home UKRI rate for PhD degrees

Grant funding full-time for 4 years or part-time equivalent up to a maximum of 8 years.      

Tuition fees up to the value of the full-time home UKRI rate for PhD degrees.

Full maintenance for both home and international students. The UKRI National Minimum Doctoral Stipend for 2026/2027 is £21,805 plus London Weighting of £2000/year and a CDP maintenance payment of £600/year.

*Students with an ‘overseas’ fee status need to cover the difference between the UK and overseas fees rate [2025/26 £17,000 per annum] and are required to reside in the UK until completion of the PhD.

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