Ma In Art History, Collections And Curating

The MA in Art History, Collections and Curating offers advanced postgraduate academic training in the history of art, with a special focus on collections and curatorial practice. It offers the opportunity to hone skills in the interpretation, critique, and analysis of works of art and architecture, developing the knowledge and capacity to pursue future careers in academia, research, writing, and curatorship. Combining academic scholarship with an introduction to the theory and practice of curation in museums and galleries, students will benefit from our School’s extensive partnerships with local, regional, and national cultural institutions whilst gaining first-hand exposure to advanced, active research in art. Careers & Employability Numerous graduates from the School of Art History and Cultural Policy occupy leading positions in cultural institutions in Ireland and across the world. Our graduate programmes develop those skills essential to a wide spectrum of careers involved with the arts, visual culture and the media. UCD graduates have occupied directorial and curatorial positions at the National Gallery of Ireland, the Hugh Lane Gallery, the Chester Beatty Library and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, while a UCD graduate is currently Head of Education at the Wallace Collection, London. Programme Outcomes A specialised understanding of art historical styles, subjects and schools - both in terms of a general familiarity with visual culture, and with regard to a connoisseurial ability to recognise the forms, techniques, functionality and authorship of works of art throughout history. An understanding of the theory and practice of curating, including the social, political and cultural functions of museums and galleries. Students should be conversant with the extensive range of methodological and interdisciplinary approaches embraced by art history, including current research trends, and how these inform and can be applied to the candidate's own research thesis and assignments. Students should have developed the skills relevant to a well-written, analytically rigorous and original research-based thesis on an art historical subject. While this should be a discrete, self-contained project, we encourage theses that offer scope for further development beyond the MA. The ability to give concise, visually aware and engaging oral presentations on specific works of art/ art historical sites, and to articulate a personal and individually critical response to the subject in question. Students should be familiar with, and have made use of, a wide range of research resources and art collections and sites in Dublin, and in other locations relevant to the course's field trips and the student's own individual research. A clear understanding of the value and integrity of original, independent thinking, and the type of research questions which can expand and shape an understanding of art historical topics and themes. A range of transferable skills - including the ability to think analytically and imaginatively - which would facilitate not only advancement in the field of art history and its cognate disciplines, but also within a wide range of professional contexts.