MA CURATING ART AND PUBLIC PROGRAMMES

Overview

Mode	Duration	Start date	Application code	Application method
ModeFull-time	Duration1 year	Start dateSeptember	Application code5626	Application method Direct to LSBU

Home/EU applicants

Mode	Duration	Start date	Application code	Application method
Mode Full-time	Duration 1 year	Start date September	Application code 5626	Application method Direct to LSBU

Postgraduate students and research students should apply through our dedicated application system. Full details of how to do this are supplied on our How to apply section for postgraduate students and our How to apply section for research students.

See our admissions policy (PDF File 1,043 KB) and complaints policy (PDF File 516 KB).

Accommodation

Students should apply for accommodation at London South Bank University (LSBU) as soon as possible, once we have made an offer of a place on one of our academic courses. Read more about applying for accommodation at LSBU.

Finance

It's a good idea to think about how you'll pay university tuition and maintenance costs while you're still applying for a place to study. Remember – you don't need to wait for a confirmed place on a course to start applying for student finance. Read how to pay your fees as a postgraduate student.

Postgraduate Application Service

Book a session with one of our specialist Postgraduate Advisors. Over a one on one Advice Session they'll advise you on postgraduate degrees at LSBU that match your interests and experience.

Interviews

Applicants must be able to demonstrate an active interest in a relevant aspect of curating art and public programmes; they will be required to undergo an interview in order to secure a place on the programme.

All candidates will be interviewed by the Course Co-Directors and Programme Co-ordinator.

Interviews will take place on the 2 December 2022 and 10 February 2023. LSBU will notify candidates and confirm the exact dates and times.

Prepare to start

We help our students prepare for university even before the semester starts. To find out when you should apply for your LSBU accommodation or student finance read the How to apply tab for this course.

Enrolment

Before you start your course we’ll send you information on what you’ll need to do before you arrive and during your first few days on campus. You can read about the process on our Enrolment pages.

Preparatory reading

The excellent Documents of Contemporary Art series published by Whitechapel and MIT Press informs the intellectual core of the programme. Each volume in the series is a definitive anthology on a particular theme, practice, or concern that is of central significance to contemporary visual culture. The artists and writers included in these books, like the guest editors who conceive them, represent the diversity of perspectives, generations, and voices defining art today.

Find more details.

• Survival toolkit for the Creative Industries (10 credits)
  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.
• Working in the art world (10 credits)
  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.
• Exhibition making (20 credits)
  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.
• Themes in contemporary art (10 credits)
  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.
• Exhibition histories (10 credits)
  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.
• Engaging the public (20 credits)
  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.
• Professional placement (60 credits)
  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.
• Practical project: exhibition or public programme (40 credits)
  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.