M.A. in Curating Art and Cultures
Master
In Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Learn the academic and the practical skills to become a curator
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Type
Master
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Location
Amsterdam (Netherlands)
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Duration
2 Years
Are you ready to investigate museum displays from multiple perspectives? Are you keen to intern at a museum and become a curator of the future?
Emagister has added to its educational catalogue the M.A. in Curating Art and Cultures program endorsed by VU Amsterdam.
The Dual Master’s in Curating Art and Cultures is a two-year program offered jointly by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), the University of Amsterdam (UvA), and leading museums and cultural institutions in the Netherlands.
Taking place in both the lecture hall and the exhibition space, this interdisciplinary Master’s programme prepares you for a career as a professional curator by strengthening your disciplinary and theoretical foundations and equipping you with the research skills and practical experience needed to achieve your ambitions.
You will spend half of the programme taking core courses related to curating and collecting, as well as elective courses in your field of interest, such as art history, cultural history or design. The other half of the programme provides you with the unique opportunity to do an internship at one of our partner institutions, spending an entire year under the supervision of a curator and contributing first-hand to several projects in the museum.
Define your career today! Contact VU Amsterdam and learn more about this program!
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About this course
As a graduate of the Dual Master’s in Curating Art and Cultures programme, you will have gained both the academic knowledge and the practical work experience to become a curator of the future.
You will have learned not only about museum and curatorial studies, but also developed your own field of specialisation. You will have had direct, hands-on, professional experience as a curator-in-training, working for a whole year in one of the leading museums in the Netherlands – in areas such as organisation and policy, registration and reporting of research results, art handling, restoration and conservation, representation and communication, and production of an exhibition.
You will also have critical, reflective and communication skills that will stand you in good stead for a curatorial career at museums of art, ethnography, design and history, galleries and exhibition spaces or any other cultural institution where research into objects and cultures is central.
Alumni from the programme have gone on to find various curatorial positions at museums in the Netherlands and abroad, including:
Van Gogh Museum
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Foam Photography Museum Amsterdam
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museum for World Cultures (Tropenmuseum)
Teylers Museum in Haarlem
RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague
Museum Arnhem
You are also qualified take up related positions – for example as a project, exhibition or public-programme coordinator, or as a collections assistant or registrar.
Alternatively, you are encouraged to continue your academic career and pursue a PhD position. Past alumni have become researchers, fellows, information specialists or academic staff members at museums and the Netherlands Institute for Art History in the Hague, and have gone on to do a PhD at various universities (e.g. Ghent University).
Internship
The year-long internship is at the heart of the Curating Art and Cultures programme. Under the supervision of curatorial professionals, you gain first-hand experience of the roles and responsibilities of contemporary curatorship, including presentation and exhibition making, registration and documentation, art handling, restoration and conservation, research and communication, and acquisition policy.
The internship offers you the unique opportunity to gain insight into, and acquire the skills of, a curatorial profession. You will be placed at one of our partner institutions, which include, among others:
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Joods Cultureel Kwartier Amsterdam
Allard Pierson Amsterdam
Amsterdam Museum
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Tropenmuseum)
Cobra Museum Amstelveen
Frans Hals Museum Haarlem
Centraal Museum Utrecht
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam
Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven
Kröller-Müller Museum Otterlo
Kunstmuseum The Hague
Mauritshuis The Hague
Each of the participating institutions offers one to two placements. The Master’s coordinators at both the VU and the UvA determine at which participating institution you willl be placed, based on your academic background, your interests and the projects on offer. You will be introduced to the various internship opportunities in the first semester, and will have the chance to explore your options in a meeting with the coordinators.
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Subjects
- Exhibition
- Art
- Collecting
- Research skills
- Museum
- Theoretical
- Curatorial studies
- Art and Cultures
- Curating Art
- Surrounding the collection
- Cultural artefacts
Course programme
Dive into your career as a curator-in-training
The Dual Master’s in Curating Art and Cultures responds to the growing demand for academically-trained curatorial professionals with excellent interdisciplinary and theoretical backgrounds. You will learn to engage with crucial theoretical concepts and contemporary issues surrounding the collection, curation and display of art objects and cultural artefacts. You will also deepen your own disciplinary knowledge and develop your research skills, culminating in a Master's thesis.
For example, you will investigate current and past museum displays and exhibitions, from the perspective of recent insights into museum and curatorial studies. You will also carry out fieldwork through excursions to museums in the Netherlands and abroad, and discuss topical issues with curators, museum directors or exhibition-makers. Moreover, you will undertake a research paper that will culminate in a presentation for your peers and supervisors.
Most importantly, you will have the opportunity to work as a curator-in-training during a year-long internship at one of the programme’s partnering museums or cultural institutions. During the internship, you will receive hands-on training in all aspects of professional museum practice, from research for publications to organising exhibitions. The placement covers the five major areas in the working life of a curator. You’ll directly contribute to the creation of exhibitions, participate in staff meetings and project teams at the museum, carry out research into (and registration of) objects from the collection, make courier trips, and represent the museum in contacts with artists, scholars, visitors and the public. In short, this is your chance to dive headfirst into the many aspects of the curatorial profession.
The start date of this programme is September 1st.
Year 1In the first semester of the first year, you will follow compulsory core courses in Collecting, Curating and Display at the UvA and the VU Amsterdam. You’ll also take electives in which you will deepen your academic field of specialisation. In addition, you will prepare for your internship placement: making individual visits to our partner institutions, attending internship events at which curators present themselves and their projects, and finally having an interview with the programme coordinators to determine your placement.
In the second semester, you will start your internship as a curator-in-training at one of our partner institutions, working four days a week. At the same time, you follow Curatorial Practices in the Contemporary World I at the UvA. This is a practical course, entailing visits to museums in the Netherlands and an excursion abroad.
In the first semester of the second year, you continue your internship as a curator-in-training. At the same time, you follow Curatorial Practices in the Contemporary World II at the VU Amsterdam. This is a research seminar, covering case studies that relate to your own specialisation as well as the museum where you are placed.
In the second semester, you complete your internship report and write your Master’s thesis – with the help of a thesis colloquium.
M.A. in Curating Art and Cultures