Study Room
Opening Hours
The Study Room is open to visitors 3 days a week. The schedule alternates through Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The space is not open to the public on Wednesdays.
The sessions are usually 3 hours: 11am-2pm, or 2pm-5pm (except on Mondays, when the earlier session is 12pm-2pm). You are welcome to book in for both sessions in a day.
All sessions must be booked in advance.
Search the CatalogueBooking a Visit
We ask you to be mindful of others who may wish to use the space and only book sessions that you are certain to attend.
For group visits, please visit this page for more information. Please do not book an individual visit via Eventbrite if you are planning to bring a university group, community group etc. Email us instead.
In advance of your visit, we recommend you search the Study Room catalogue and check out our Study Room Guides.
Book a VisitThe Study Room
Our core resource, housed at the LADA space in Bethnal Green, is the world’s largest collection of research materials on Live Art, containing over 8,000 items that include out-of-print books and rare documentation.
It is a free, open access research facility for artists, students, curators, academics and other arts professionals and can be used to view artists’ work, read publications, undertake research projects, and find out general information about Live Art, opportunities and networks.
Including DVDs and Live Art related videos, the LADA space is for many people one of the only opportunities to view documentation of performances that they were unable to experience ‘live’.
The resources of the LADA space are reference-only and we are unable to lend any of the materials. Unfortunately we have no photocopying facilities.
Read testimonials from different users of LADA’s Study Room.
‘LADA’s Study Room is a kind of artform in itself.’
What is available in our Study Room
- A collection of publications ranging from theoretical texts to books on individual artists’ work.
- Thousands of DVDs, videos, CDs and digital files of performance documents and documentation.
- A range of British and international magazines, journals and back issues, including: Performance Research, Janus, High Performance, Hybrid, and Virus.
- Various Collections, including The Library of Performing Rights, a unique resource examining the intersection between performance and Human Rights.
- Information on facilities, training, networking, support structures, professional development opportunities, funding and policy for Live Art.
LADA's Study Room
Study Room Guides
As part of the continuous development of our resources, we commission a range of artists and commentators to write thematic Study Room Guides to help navigate users, enable them to experience the Study Room in a new way, and highlight materials that they may not have otherwise come across.
The Study Room Guides explore, among others, topics such as: Fat in Live Art, Live Art and animals, neurodiversity, issues of class and socioeconomic barriers, the notion of border, Live Art and motherhood, feminism, bodily functions in performance, disability and new artistic models, one to one performance.
All Study Room Guides are available on our website.
Lois Weaver and Claire McDonald at the Study Room Guide Launch
Watching Videotapes
The Live Art Development Agency is engaged in a long-term project to digitise the 759 videotapes held in the Study Room. To avoid possible damage to the videotapes, these are not available for viewing in the Study Room at this point. We plan to digitise the tapes in the future. Please sign up to our newsletter to be kept updated.
The Study Room at The Garrett Centre. Image credit George Hunt
