Cultural, Economic, and Community Impact of Independent Cinema Exhibition: A Case Study of the Showroom Cinema and its Audiences 1994-present

About the Project

Applications are invited for a funded PhD scholarship, in collaboration with the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield with experience of and/or a background in film, media, or cultural studies, or a background in cinema and the exhibition sector.
This PhD is a case study of the independent Showroom Cinema in Sheffield, tracing its history and audiences from its opening in 1994 through to the present day. The project’s aim is to investigate the cultural, economic, and community impact of the Showroom through archival research, interviews, and public outreach activities. The project will contribute to wider debates on policy making within the independent cinema exhibition sector in the UK and the urgent threats facing it.
The Showroom is an internationally significant cinema. It is one of the largest independent cinema in Europe and has been the host of the Sheffield DocFest since 1995. Its importance to the cultural economy of Sheffield, the UK, and Europe was reflected when it received the second largest grant from the BFI’s Culture Recovery Fund in 2021. Audiences have always been at the heart of the Showroom’s mission. Sheffield City Council initiated the project in the 1980s, forming the Sheffield Media and Exhibition Centre to lead the project. Following the closure of the independent Anvil Cinema, the Showroom was to be a cultural space for the benefit of all Sheffield citizens offering alternative, independent, and international cinema. But it was intended to be more than just a cinema: it would be a ‘media centre’, an industrial hub for the wider film industry in the region and would serve as the centrepiece of the newly designated Cultural Industries Quarter. 
The Showroom, and the wider UK independent cinema exhibition sector, faces ongoing challenges from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; increased competition from streaming services; and rivalry from a revived cinema circuit in Sheffield – Sheffield city centre alone now has four commercial cinemas. The BFI’s Screen Culture 2033 strategy places audiences and outreach at the heart of its funding strategies and so the Showroom seeks to develop local strategies to engage new audiences from Sheffield and South Yorkshire’s diverse communities. The Showroom, like other independent cinemas, has had to navigate the tension between serving its community through alternative programming and educational activities, with the need to ensure a commercially viable business. 
The project’s objectives are to:
1.	Examine the Showroom’s audiences and community outreach in Sheffield and South Yorkshire to ascertain its cultural and economic impact and how this has changed and how it could evolve.
2.	Trace the evolution of the Showroom’s business and programming strategies to understand its development against changing local and national cultural, economic, and political contexts.
3.	Investigate past, present and future opportunities and threats to the Showroom, and the wider independent cinema exhibition sector.
4.	Contextualize the study with reference to other independent cinemas in the UK and internationally.
Research environment and training
The successful candidate will be a member of the Centre for Culture, Media & Society and be encouraged to participate in the activities of the Film and Media group.  They will join a vibrant PhD programme with excellent student satisfaction scores. There are opportunities to participate in seminars, workshops, and conferences, including SHU's innovative interdisciplinary postgraduate research conferences on the topics of research impact and research method. We offer training in research methods via modules on the M. Res in Social Research and access to specialist media and film production facilities including recording studios, edit suites and VR studio and screening facilities at 'The Void' film lecture theatre. You can read more about the PhD community and some past and current PhD projects here. There will be opportunities to get involved in developing the community, academic, and industrial outreach of the Showroom through a collaboration to digitise a selection of its past cinema programmes, to arrange a public history event to celebrate the cinema’s 30th anniversary, and to co-organise a workshop on audiences and independent cinema exhibition.
The Showroom will support the project by providing a supervisor and external advisor from the cinema. It will also facilitate interview contacts and archival access, and support public history engagement events for the student to disseminate their research to a wider audience as part of the cinema’s 30th anniversary in 2025.
How to apply
Please see the prospectus entry for PhD Media & Communication for course information, entry requirements and the online application form. This project is not suitable for a Distance Learning arrangement.
For your research proposal we would like you to a) set the project enquiry into a context that includes examples of relevant research studies and policy b) discuss some of the practical research challenges and opportunities for this project c) outline how your skills and experience have prepared you to embark on this project. 
For further guidance see Culture & Creativity Research Institute PhD application guidance
Sheffield Hallam welcomes applications from all candidates irrespective of age, pregnancy and maternity, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, or belief, or marital or civil partnership status. 
We strongly recommend you contact Dr James Fenwick ([log in to unmask]) to discuss your application. Other supervisors include Dr Emmie McFadden (SHU), Dr Rinella Cere (SHU); Ian Wild (Showroom Cinema Chief Executive).
Start date for studentship: 1st October 2023
Interviews are currently scheduled for: week beginning the 26th June 2023
Closing date for applications: noon 26th May 2023
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Funding Notes
The scholarship is available for 3.5 years (full-time) or 6 years (part-time) and includes:
• Tuition fees at Home rate
• A maintenance bursary at the standard Sheffield Hallam PhD stipend rate. This is aligned with the net Real Living Wage; the current rate for full time study in academic year 2022/23 is £18,178 per annum. Part-time is paid at 50%
• Up to £1500 total project costs
• The scholarship is open to Home and International candidates but please note that International applicants will need to have funds in place to pay the difference between Home and International tuition fees

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