menu icon
Book your open day visit nowClick to book open day
Art Gallery and Museum Studies MA

Different course options

Full time | University of Leeds | 12 months | 30-SEP-24

Study mode

Full time

Duration

12 months

Start date

30-SEP-24

Key information
DATA SOURCE : IDP Connect

Qualification type

MA - Master of Arts

Subject areas

Museum Studies / Museology Museum / Gallery / Conservation Skills & Studies Arts / Culture Administration

Course type

Taught

Course Summary

The Art Gallery and Museum Studies MA aims to provide you with a critical understanding of issues in curatorship, museology and museum management.

You'll develop a critical understanding of the histories of art galleries and museums and explore and challenge key ideas that have shaped museum practice. You'll deploy these historical and theoretical understandings to develop innovative approaches to curation, interpretation and engaging audiences.

This Masters course considers the ways in which material culture has been represented and interpreted by historians and cultural theorists, the methodologies behind museum practice and methods of display and interpretation, and also puts theory and practice into dialogue.

Supported by the Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries and Heritage, you will gain the knowledge and skills for a successful career in the museum and art gallery sector.

You'll study in the heart of a cultural hub for this diverse and vibrant region. Leeds is home to a wide variety of world-leading and innovative arts and heritage organisations, from the Royal Armouries, Opera North, Leeds Playhouse and Northern Ballet, to museums, galleries and heritage sites and many contemporary art spaces.

We are also close to everything the rest of Yorkshire has to offer, from The Hepworth Wakefield to the National Science and Media Museum, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Brontë Parsonage Museum. We have close links with many of these cultural institutions to support your practical learning.

Career opportunities

The course will equip you with a good understanding of the issues and approaches to art gallery and museum studies, as well as practical work experience – a combination which is very valuable to employers. You will also develop advanced skills in communication, research and analysis as well as cultural awareness.

Our graduates work as heads of collection, curators and education staff in local authority museums, for national heritage organisations like the National Trust, charitable trusts and in arts marketing and public relations.

A significant number choose to return to the School to complete a research degree and have secured scholarships to pursue their research topics, including Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) scholarships. Former research students are now forging academic careers in the UK, Canada and the USA.

Through a combination of theory and practice, this Masters course produces graduates who are able to develop professional careers in the museums and heritage sector whilst retaining a critical and reflexive eye on their own practice and that of the institutions in which they work.

Modules

Interpretations will support you to develop critically-engaged, reflexive and practical understandings of interpretive practice in art galleries, museums and heritage. Interpretations is an action learning module. You will work collaboratively with other students to respond to a professional brief. By the end of the 11 Week semester you will have developed, designed, marketed and installed your interpretative intervention. Through the module you will be supported through workshops focused on interpretative planning, audience development, writing text, interpretive design, marketing and visitor research. You will learn how to develop interpretative approaches, write accessibly for different audiences and build skills of collaboration and project management. Key questions will include: Who is able to take up the position of interpreter? What are the responsibilities generated by the desire to represent other times, other places and other people? What political and creative potentials are enabled and foreclosed by the interpretive stories that are told? What ideas of knowledge can be drawn on for creative interpretation?

Tuition fees

UK fees
Course fees for UK students

For this course (per year)

£12,000

International fees
Course fees for EU and international students

For this course (per year)

£25,250

Entry requirements

A bachelor degree with a 2:1 (hons) in a relevant subject. Previous academic work should indicate an ability to develop critical thinking around the sector. Professional experience will also be considered. Experience of volunteering or working in a relevant field, such as museums, galleries, auction houses and/or heritage organisations, is required. We do not require a specific length of time to have spent in work experience though you must be able to critically reflect on your experience in your personal statement and at interview.

Department profile

As a Masters student, you will contribute to the School’s dynamic postgraduate community. The School is one of the largest British graduate schools for art and art theory outside London and a leading centre for work in critical cultural theory, with over 30 members of staff comprising artists, historians and theorists. We offer five Masters courses, all of which can be studied full or part-time. Whichever course you choose to study, you’ll...more