The Institute for Curatorship and Education (ICE) is a research institute whose aim is to advance the understanding of curatorship and mediation in the context of collections, exhibitions, public space and non-institutional interventions.

ICE provides a platform for an international exchange of creative and critical ideas concerning presentation and mediation, interlinking the theory and practice of exhibition making. ICE interrogates fundamental assumptions of curatorship and reviews the changing contemporary perspectives on the role and meaning of exhibited objects in relation to the public and the changing roles of the artist. 

A primary critical focus of ICE is on new thinking in the fields of presentation, display, reception and interpretation of art.  ICE also engages actively with a broad range of researchers and professionals in the realms of science, ethnography and humanities. ICE is aware of the challenges of new research into cognition, learning, education, and science in the cultural context of globalisation.

ICE organises an international programme of lectures, symposia, conferences and exhibitions in Edinburgh, the UK and abroad. It initiates and sustains international exchanges with institutions and individuals. Through these activities ICE is developing new approaches to curating, learning and communication, and supporting reciprocal understanding between generations and professions.

ICE is based in Edinburgh as a major research project of Edinburgh College of Art, an internationally recognised institution which supports the education, research and practice of artists, designers, architects, curators and writers. It also has academic, museum and professional partners in the city engaged in related work.

For further information visit: www.eca.ac.uk/ice