Prospectus

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Core Course II: Art History and Curatorial Practice

Course
2024-2025

Admission requirements

Admission to the MA Arts and Culture: Museum Studies / Art History, research master Arts, Literature and Media.

Students of the Humanities faculty who are interested and who are not enrolled in the Master Arts and Culture should contact the education coordinator in order to enroll. NB: This is only possible in case there are available spots.

Description

What is the relation between exhibitions and art history? How do curators engage with the work of art historians and vice-versa?
In Core Course II, students will learn to think and write about the current practices in museums and (art) exhibitions from a global perspective. The course comprises lectures, excursions and student-presentations. Students will apply the knowledge of theory and methodology acquired in Core Course I to a number of topical case studies that examine and evaluate art historical scholarship in the light of contemporary curatorial practice.

The first part of this course will introduce students to a number of important art historical debates that are relevant to curatorial practices in museums. Readings of seminal texts and individual visits to museums will provide a basis for discussion about the relation between objects, display and theory. Group excursions to exhibitions will provide a practical framework to examine and evaluate topical issues in the field of art history as well as museum studies.

Students will form duos to research relevant issues in the modern museum, which will focus on analyzing a particular museum, exhibition, or another concrete case study related to the field of exhibitions.

Course objectives

Students will:

  • acquire insights into current curatorial and art historical debates practices, and position oneself in relation to these;

  • develop skills in oral presentation while defending viewpoints and arguments;

  • collaboratively research a topical issue, developing skills in collaboration central to how the modern museum functions

  • present an individually written analytical scholarly paper related to the current debates and practices;

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

  • Seminar

Attendance is compulsory. Students are allowed to miss a maximum of two seminars, provided they present a valid reason beforehand. Students who have missed more than two seminars will have to aply to the Examination Board of the MA Arts and Culture in order to obtain permission to further follow and complete the course.

Assessment method

Assessment

  • Active participation in class and in the duo-project, presentation of a research topic in duos (25%)

  • Paper of 5000 words (incl. footnotes) (75%)

Weighing

The final grade is the average of the two marks (25% and 75%) A student passes the class if the weighted average is a 5.5 or higher (rounded off to a 6.0).

Resit

The re-sit can consist of one or two parts: there is a re-sit for the paper (75%) and/or an alternative assignment for the duo presentation (25%).

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Reading list

To be announced on Brightspace.

Registration

Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website

Registration À la carte education, Contract teaching and Exchange

Information for those interested in taking this course in context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.

Information for those interested in taking this course in context of Contract teaching (with taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.

Contact

  • For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.

  • For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal.

Remarks

Not applicable.