Visit the Study Room - LADA Live Art Development Agency

Opening Hours

COVID-19 Update: We regret that we are currently only able to offer reduced opening hours: Tuesday, Thursday & Friday – 11.30am – 2pm or 2pm – 4.30pm. We encourage users to book either single study sessions, or if you wish to study for the entire day please feel free to book yourself in for two slots in both the morning and afternoon. We do ask you to be mindful of others who may wish to use the space and to only book in for sessions that you are certain to attend. Any deviation from this schedule will be announced in advance on our website.

LADA is not open at the weekend. Our opening times are subject to change and we ask that you always book in advance of visiting the Study Room.

In advance of your visit we also recommend you search the Study Room catalogue and check out our Study Room Guides.

Booking a Visit

We have implemented new systems and measures to ensure that our staff, visitors, and everyone who uses our building, remain safe and healthy during the ongoing pandemic. Please ensure you read the information contained in the Booking Form fully before arriving at our building. Should you have any questions or concerns about your visit, please contact [email protected].

We can currently accommodate a maximum of 3 Study Room users at any one time. The Study Room now has designated individual workstations, and you will be asked not to move furniture or sit elsewhere. Please arrive at The Garrett Centre wearing a mask. You will be required to keep your mask on whenever you are moving around the building.

For individual bookings, please fill in the form below with your required details and wait for confirmation. If you are booking on the day please call 0208 985 2124 during office hours (10-6pm).

For group visits, please visit this page for more information.

The Study Room

The Study Room is the core resource of the Live Art Development Agency and is a free, open access research facility used by artists, students, curators, academics and other arts professionals.

The Study Room is situated at LADA in Bethnal Green, London, and can be used to view artists’ work, read publications, undertake research projects, find out general information about Live Art, opportunities and networks.

The Study Room houses one of the largest publicly accessible libraries of Live Art related videos, DVDs and publications in the world and for many people the resource is one of the only opportunities to view documentation of performances that they were unable to experience ‘live’.

Read testimonials from different users of the Agency’s Study Room.

The Study Room is a reference-only resource and we are unable to lend any of the materials. Unfortunately we have no photocopying facilities.

What is available in our Study Room

A comprehensive 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.

Study Room Guides

As part of the continuous development of the Study Room we have commissioned a range of artists and commentators to write personal Study Room Guides to help navigate users through this resource. The idea is to enable Study Room users to experience the materials in a new way and highlight materials that they may not have otherwise come across.

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.