Exhibition Research Lab (ERL) is a public venue and a research centre dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of exhibitions and curatorial knowledge, founded in 2012 as part of Liverpool School of Art and Design, Liverpool John Moores University.
ERL proposes curatorial practice as a form of critical inquiry and knowledge production. It extends the traditional remit of an art gallery as a site for display or pedagogical resource, to an expanded concept of a ‘lab’ where experimental thinking and making takes place, and where curatorial knowledge is enacted, produced and made public.
Positioned across academic research and cultural ecology, ERL is underpinned by partnerships and joint posts with cultural institutions in the city including Tate Liverpool and Liverpool Biennial. ERL offers a year-round public programme of activities including exhibitions, talks, seminars, workshops, residencies and fellowships, publications, education programmes and doctoral research.