MA CURATING ART AND PUBLIC PROGRAMMES

This module supports and expands students’ learning from the low residency and practical project modules by introducing them to current concepts, debates and practices in the field of arts management. It builds students’ professional practice capabilities and explores core literature from the field of arts management, combining theoretical and critical approaches.

This module introduces students to specialised aspects of professional practice in the art world, with a focus on visual arts and public programmes. It offers a range of dedicated workshops covering topics such as Commissioning Contemporary Art, Writing about Contemporary Art, Navigating the Art World, Curating Archives, The Museum and Ethics. It is delivered by selected established professionals from the UK and abroad who can share valuable experiences from their sector.

This module uses the Whitechapel Gallery as a real-life case-study to introduce students to the different aspects of curating in the expanded field of an institution – from front-of-house operations to communications, from development and administration to exhibitions. The module presents and analyses the Gallery’s programme and operations and introduces students to the Whitechapel’s respective Directors of Department as guest speakers, relating first-hand information about the tasks and parameters of exhibition-making.

In introducing and closely examining the institutional context of curating exhibitions, the module offers students robust methodological approaches to designing and setting up exhibitions within the institution and beyond.

The Themes in Contemporary Art module introduces students to key theoretical frameworks and writings that influence and respond to practices and contexts in contemporary art and culture. Students will develop the skills around research methodologies necessary for them to undertake their own research and complete small-scale research projects. They will also learn to apply critical frameworks, critical and reflexive thinking, to their own curatorial practice. Relationships between theory and practice will be explored within an overarching art historical narrative, focused on themes explored in art writing.

The module presents a selected survey of the history of exhibition and display through contextual lectures and a series of exhibition and display case studies. The case studies might focus on a single exhibition, a group of exhibitions on a theme, or an aspect of exhibition and display history.

Historical and little known case-studies cover a range of exhibitions from across the globe, from European Academy exhibitions in the 18th and 19th centuries through to African festivals of the 1970s, which presented visual arts alongside music and performance in the public realm. The module’s context will be broad, taking in examples from beyond the Western canon and with an expanded notion of art practice including crafts, film, performance, textiles and fashion.

This module addresses critical debates across art, public programming and curatorial practice. It considers distinct models of engagement and asks questions about their relevance in relation to local and global audiences. The practice of public programming is analysed and discussed within the context of curating and audience engagement in various institutional and geographic contexts.

The module introduces students to the overall strategy and working methodologies, relating first-hand information about the concepts, tasks, and parameters underpinning the making of public programmes.

This is an extensive placement offered at the Whitechapel Gallery exclusively for students on this MA course. The placement constitutes the practical ‘backbone’ of the programme, through which students can gain invaluable experience of the inner workings of a medium-size cultural organization and apply the knowledge, understanding and skillset they have acquired through this course within a practical, embedded, real-life context.

Students will be offered a post in one of the Gallery’s Departments and work with professionals across the Gallery for 2 days per week (7.5 hours per day) over a period of 20 weeks, accruing 300 hours of work-based learning.

Each placement will provide valuable theory-into-practice-led opportunities to critically assess established categories of curating in a real-life practical environment. It will also equip students with actual vocational experience to develop key professional skills essential for work in the cultural sector.

This module enables students to engage in an extended creative project specialising in their individual areas of practice, creative interest and research concerns. Students will work in small groups of 3-4 and will be given the option of either developing an Exhibition or a Public Programme related to the Exhibition. Students will work collaboratively in their teams. Emphasis will be on co-working practices and on the concept of collaborative creativity.

Working under the supervision of Whitechapel staff with support from LSBU’s academic staff, students will create original projects that are fully matched to their intended audience. They will be expected to produce work that demonstrates an advanced knowledge and understanding of the relevant issues and debates within the context of their chosen practice. The processes will mirror those of professional project development and encompass elements of pitching an idea, working to a brief, research and development, exhibition/public programme, evaluation. Students will be expected to demonstrate an advanced level of professional skills throughout and. to engage with the entrepreneurial and professional practice aspects of developing and delivering a professional practical project, such as: Research and development, fundraising, issues around intellectual property, press and marketing, networking and relationship building, etc.