Overview

• Learn from lecturers at the cutting edge of contemporary art research and curatorial practice, as well as art history and visual culture
• Expand your understanding of the social, cultural and economic issues that surround the international contemporary art world
• Develop a range of subject-specific, academic and transferable skills, including high-order conceptual and visual literacy and communication skills for the arts sector and beyond
• A partnership-based approach to support opportunities for work placements in prestigious museums and galleries (public or commercial)
• Gain access to expert guest tutors and lecturers, international art fairs, and London Field trips
• Benefit from studying in the culturally-rich South West of the UK, and from teaching in an international gallery space in term two in central London, in close proximity to the fine art sector

Careers

• This programme will prepare you for graduate-level employment by developing a number of the skills and attributes that are valued by employers. These include the ability to:
• engage imaginatively in the process of understanding and analysing contemporary international arts, and acquire the analytical tools necessary for an understanding of them.
• promote a sense of the complex social, cultural, and institutional interactions between the production and reception of contemporary art and acquire the critical tools necessary to reflect upon these interactions.
• engage critically with theoretical perspectives, major debates, and intellectual paradigms in the fields of art history, visual culture and arts criticism, and to encourage comparative reflection on the shared and contested knowledge produced therein.
• understand the historical evolution of key concepts and procedures, in arts practice, art criticism and curatorship, and to consider the distinct and shared ways in which these concepts and procedures have developed within and beyond particular national traditions as well as different institutional contexts.
• to develop a comparative understanding of the ways in which aesthetic judgements are constructed and aesthetic processes are experienced with regards to contemporary art.
• acquire a sense of the distinctive social and cultural importance of the contemporary arts through an intellectually stimulating and satisfying experience of learning and studying.
• develop the basis for further study in art history, gallery studies, or related disciplines.
• develop a range of subject-specific, academic and transferable skills, including high-order conceptual and visual literacy and communication skills of value in graduate employment.