Michael Birchall is an art theorist and curator. Since 2016 he has been curator of public practice at Tate Liverpool and senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University in Exhibition Studies. Working in both academia and museums his curatorial practice engages with other disciplines, through a model of integrated practice that is deeply rooted in collaborative work. This is centred around socially engaged art, queer studies, creative labour, and exhibition histories. Recent projects at Tate Liverpool include The Keith Haring Foundation residency with Patrick Staff (2019), Animal, Annika Eriksson (2019), O.K. – The Musical, Christopher Kline (2017) and Report to an Academy, Sarah Browne (2017). 

Previously Birchall has held curatorial appointments at The Western Front (Vancouver, Canada), The Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre (Canada) and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (Germany); and a lectureship at Zurich University of the Arts in Curatorial Practice. He has published widely in journals and catalogues, publications include: Situating Participatory Art between process and practice (ARKEN Journal, 2017), After the turn: art education beyond the museum (On Curating, 2014), and The Collective Good, (Rogland Kunsthalle, 2016). He is currently preparing a publication for Routledge on Labour and Production in Contemporary Art.