Michael Birchall

Dr Michael Birchall is currently Curator at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich .

Previously he has held curatorial appointments at Liverpool John Moores University, The Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre (Canada), The Western Front (Canada), and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (Germany). Recent projects at Tate Liverpool include The Keith Haring Foundation residency with Patrick Staff (2019), Animal, Annika Eriksson (2019), O.K. – The Musical, Christopher Kline (2017) and Report to an Academy, Sarah Browne (2017). He studied Art History, History and Curating; and received his PhD from the University of Wolverhampton under the tutelage of Professor John Roberts.

Working in both academia and museums his curatorial practice engages with other disciplines, through a model of integrated practice that is deeply rooted in collaborative work. His research include, socially engaged art, community art, queer studies, curatorial practice and theory, exhibition histories from the 1960s onwards, and new forms of creative labour in the arts.

He has spoken at a wide range of conferences internationally, and museums, including, Tate Modern (UK), International Studio & Curatorial Program (USA), Migros Museum (Switzerland), Rogaland Kunstsenter (Norway), Université du Québec Montréal (Canada), The Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), The Royal College of Art (UK), and The Model (Ireland). In 2014 he delivered a keynote address at Sydney College of Art, as part of the conference, 'Curating Feminism: a Contemporary Art and Feminism', and in 2016 he participated as guest faculty in the SAAS-FEE Summer Institute of Art, on Art and the Politics of Individuation in Berlin. From 2012-2015 he lectured on the Curating Program at Zurich University of the Arts (Switzerland), and was co-publisher of the journal, On Curating.

Dr Birchall is currently preparing a publication for Routledge on labour and production in contemporary art.