postgraduate
ma curating the art museum
This MA programme, led by Martin Caiger-Smith, is aimed at art curators of the future. Its purpose is to extend and develop graduates’ art historical interests, expertise and scholarship into the area of curatorship and active engagement with collections and exhibitions in the museum and gallery realm. It puts the physical object back at the heart of curatorial training whilst simultaneously placing specialist knowledge firmly within the context of the modern museum and the expanding remit of the art curator in the twenty-first century.
The programme draws on The Courtauld’s own unique resources – its faculty, conservation department, Gallery and collection - and on its close links with other institutions across London and more widely. The course focuses on the historical, theoretical and political context of the art museum and on contemporary issues relating to the museum and curatorial practice. It also considers the physical history of works of art, issues of handling and conservation and the care of collections, and varying means of communication, whether written or spoken, directed at a scholarly or a wider audience. Students undertake collaborative projects, both virtual and real, oriented towards the exhibition or display of visual art, and written assignments including a dissertation on a related subject; they visit museums and galleries here and abroad, and engage in the planning and delivery of public debates, involving museum professionals and experts, on key issues. A central element of this MA is a part-time internship, running over six months, in a prominent London museum or gallery, designed to maintain and further the crucial dialogue between the theoretical and the practical which underpins the entire course.
Graduates of this unique Programme will be ideally placed to contribute to the future of the art museum profession. Recent graduates of the Programme have gone on to positions in the curatorial, education and development departments of a range of museum and galleries including Tate, The British Museum, The Wallace Collection, Historic Royal Palaces, Charleston, Sussex, The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Photographic Centre Northwest, Seattle; to galleries and independent projects in London, New York and Berlin including White Cube and Gagosian; and to competitive fellowships and long-term internships at the Frick Collection and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid.
These exhibitions have been curated by MA Curating the Art Museum students in recent years as the culmination of the year's programme:
2011 Exhibition
FALLING UP
THE GRAVITY OF ART
23 June - 4 September 2011
This exhibition explores the theme of gravity in art through a selection of historical and contemporary works from The Courtauld Gallery and The Arts Council Collection. The exhibition will reveal artists' ongoing fascination with notions of gravity, from the 16th to the 21st century.
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2010 Exhibition
Blood tears faith doubt
Historical & Contemporary encounters
17 June to 18 July 2010
This exhibition brings together works from The Courtauld Gallery and the Arts Council Collection to explore themes of suffering, compassion, devotion and belief.
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2009 Exhibition
Once Upon A Time...
Artists & Storytelling
25 June to 26 July 2009
This exhibition brought together works from The Courtauld Gallery and the Arts Council Collection to explore the diverse ways that artists have engaged with traditions of storytelling.
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2008 Exhibition
Stages and Scenes:
Creating Architectual Illusion
26 June to 27 July 2008
This exhibition centred on the rise of the theatre as a spectacular display of wealth and power, which reached its height in 18th-century Europe.
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