Wimbledon College of Art is a subject specific learning environment informed atits heart by research and practice.

The complexity and intricacy of the relationship of practice to research lies at the heart of fine art research at Wimbledon, the unpicking of this relationship is both the first problem faced by its researchers and informs the most significant of its findings. Research in Fine Art cannot happen without the support of a sophisticated making practice to test and support any thesis created within the subject. The interdependence of these twin elements is the common thread running through research conducted in and around the learning environment at Wimbledon at all levels.

The precept of the interrelatedness of research to the learning environment has prompted the institution’s research projects, the appointment of Fellowships for emerging Researchers, Readers and Professors and the culture of the Research Degree programme.

All academic staff at Wimbledon are sophisticated practitioners. The institutional impulse is to distil research imperatives from that practice, focus on the issues that arise from this process (recognising the inter- relatedness of much of this research) focussing resource opportunities on the development of a collaborative, inventive investigation into these questions. The firstresult of this process has been the development of ‘research clusters’ all of which have subdivisions involving groups of staff in possible research projects. These groups are the engine that supports research in a sustainable and visible way.

This processalso facilitates the inclusion of staff research into the learning environment rather than something made outside the institution.