Study Room

Opening Hours

The Study Room is currently open to visitors Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, between the times of 11:00 and 17:00. All sessions must be booked in advance. Any deviation from this schedule will be announced here.

If you wish to study for the entire day, please feel free to book yourself in for two slots. We do ask you to be mindful of others who may wish to use the space and to only book for sessions that you are certain to attend.

Search the catalogue

Booking a Visit

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

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

If you wish to visit the LADA space but are unable to come between the allocated slots, please email us to discuss the possibility of another day.

Book a Visit

“Their open-access Study Room provides a gateway into a provocative, challenging yet wonder-full world”
The Independent’s 50 Best Museums and Galleries

The 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 the Agency’s Study Room.

A group of Study Room users look at a table full of books in LADA's Study Room.

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.

The exterior of LADA's home the Garret Centre in Bethnal Green

LADA's home - The Garrett Centre, Bethnal Green, East London

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.

Lois Weaver holding up a Study Room Guide and Claire McDonald sitting beside her

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