2024/25 Taught Postgraduate Programme Catalogue

MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies

Total credits: 180

Entry requirements:

Entry Requirements are available on the Course Search entry

School/Unit responsible for the parenting of students and programme:

School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies

Examination board through which the programme will be considered:

Programme specification:

The Art Gallery and Museum Studies MA aims to provide you with a critical understanding of issues in curatorship, museology and museum management.

You'll develop a critical understanding of the histories of art galleries and museums and explore and challenge key ideas that have shaped museum practice. You'll deploy these historical and theoretical understandings to develop innovative approaches to curation, interpretation and engaging audiences.

This Masters course considers the ways in which material culture has been represented and interpreted by historians and cultural theorists, the methodologies behind museum practice and methods of display and interpretation, and also puts theory and practice into dialogue.

Supported by the Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries and Heritage, you will gain the knowledge and skills for a successful career in the museum and art gallery sector.

You'll study in the heart of a cultural hub for this diverse and vibrant region. Leeds is home to a wide variety of world-leading and innovative arts and heritage organisations, from the Royal Armouries, Opera North, Leeds Playhouse and Northern Ballet, to museums, galleries and heritage sites and many contemporary art spaces.

We are also close to everything the rest of Yorkshire has to offer, from The Hepworth Wakefield to the National Science and Media Museum, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Brontë Parsonage Museum. We have close links with many of these cultural institutions to support your practical learning.

You'll become a member of the Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries and Heritage and enjoy opportunities from networking events and links to alumni to conferences, seminars and reading groups.



You will study a range of compulsory and optional modules that address theory and practice in museums.

History and the Museum traces the emergence of art galleries, museums and country houses in western Europe and opens up critical questions about how the past is presented. You can build on this work and specialise in your own areas of interest, through choosing from an array of optional modules in the School and beyond that explore contemporary curatorial strategies, technologies and media, cultural memory and material culture.

In Interpretations, you will work on a digital interpretive intervention based around selected museum, gallery and heritage collections. This experience prepares you for the option of undertaking a work placement project with an external organisation or optional modules exploring audiences, participation or engagement in semester two. Read about exhibitions and activities curated by our students.

In Critical Issues, you are supported to locate interpretive, conservation, curatorial or marketing practices in the context of current academic and professional debates. Through a number of tailored strands – covering topics such as contemporary art, heritage, participation and the digital – you will develop your own mini-research project, which prepares you for your MA dissertation.

The optional module Placements in Context: Policy, Organisations and Practice supports you to deliver a collaborative group project responding to a brief set by one of our many gallery, museum and heritage partners. Previous projects have collaborated with organisations such as the National Science and Media Museum, Leeds Museums and Galleries, The Tetley, and Hyde Park Picture House. We work with a range of organisations in Leeds and beyond to develop placement projects that have a direct impact on the work of our partners and give you a crucial insight into employment in the sector.

Your dissertation project develops research around museums, galleries and heritage practice and theories. You can either choose a standard route or develop a practice-led dissertation project, where you combine practical work with critical reflective writing.

Year1 - View timetable

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]

Compulsory modules:

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

Optional modules:

Candidates will be required to study ONE of the following modules

Candidates will be required to study 30 credits, choosing from the optional modules in Baskets A and B. Note that the list is indicative, and may change year by year.

Semester 1 Basket A

Semester 1 Basket B

Candidates will be required to study 30 credits, choosing from the optional modules in Baskets C and D. Note that the list is indicative, and may change year by year.

Semester 2 Basket C

Semester 2 Basket D

Last updated: 12/06/2024 16:13:25

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