Researching Archive
ZADIK works as a research archive by not only making its holdings accessible, but also by advancing its own research projects and initial research.
The main aim is to show the potentials and issues arising from the archive's holdings and to provide impulses for further research and discussion, also to external researchers, curators and artists. This includes fields of art market research, provenance research, art history, economic history, sociology, artistic research, and other interdisciplinary subjects.
The results of ZADIK's own research are made accessible to the public through its own as well as external publications or at conferences, colloquia and lectures.
Practice-oriented education
Since 2003, ZADIK offers courses at the Department of Art History at University of Cologne. In different formats – exercises, seminars, lectures – it contributes to integrating the art market history into general art history. Especially in context of the module 'Art Market' in the master program 'Art History', it is elaborated how the actors of the art market have significantly contributed to the development of modern and contemporary art.
ZADIK sees itself as a teaching lab: on site in the archive's rooms, students work with archival documents, are trained in the study of art sources, and jointly develop practice-related projects (e.g. documentary exhibitions). At the same time, the education is always committed to the philosophy of research-based teaching and learning. With the transfer of ZADIK from an association to an academic institute of the University of Cologne in 2020, education will also be expanded in cooperation with other disciplines and related research topics.
