The MA provides a forum for you to explore and debate contemporary issues in art and design education in the broadest sense. It is designed to enable you to draw on your experience as an arts practicioner, curator and on your experience as an educator as a basis for research. In this way you are able to set up mutually productive relationships between theory and practice and between academic study and professional experience. Together, students and tutors develop a research community informed by contributions from visiting artists, lecturers and other practitioners in the field. The programme challenges you to re-engage with art, craft and design practice as a means to understand learning through art and as a way to research within art education. At the same time you are introduced to social science and humanities research methodologies. The programme attracts a diverse cohort of students, from art educators working across all formal sectors (primary to HE) and from artists and educators working in alternative and informal educational sites (local communities, galleries, hospitals, museums, prisons, etc). The programme can be taken on a part-time or full-time basis and is designed to accommodate the needs of busy working professionals as well as full-time students. Module summaries:
Alternative Models for Art Education- New module! (Credit value: 30)
This new module engages directly with significant recent shifts in contemporary art education by examining a number of ‘alternative models’ that have emerged in the past ten years in direct response to new political, economic and technological paradigms. Students will analyse and critically debate the position and efficacy of existing and emergent models, from online courses, to nomadic art schools, salons, residency programmes and more idiosyncratic short-term projects both in and outside of established institutional structures. Contemporary Art & Artists in Education (Credit value: 30)
The module enables students to engage critically with contemporary art (practices and discourses) and to investigate the potential of contemporary art and artists to inform practice in different educational contexts, e.g. schools, colleges, galleries and museums. It aims to challenge educational orthodoxies and question myths surrounding modernism/postmodernism by considering contemporary art in the context of the wider field of visual and material culture. In order to explore debates and practices students will be introduced to relevant analytical methodologies. Issues in Art & Design Education (Credit value: 30)
Students’ experiences of, and interests in, the field provide the starting point for a critical examination of Issues in Art & Design Education. In relation to a tradition of critical pedagogy they are invited to explore and position their practice within the histories and philosophies of art education and evaluate its significance for contemporary practices. Students’ engagement with scholarly activities through the development of academic literacy is supported throughout and they are introduced to a range of research methodologies appropriate to their artistic and educational interests. Learning & Teaching in Art and Design (Credit value: 30)
This module offers you the opportunity to explore how learning and teaching in art, craft and design can be investigated through personal engagement in practical, studio-based work. Through a series of tutorials, visual presentations, seminars and workshops the dynamic relationship between art and design activity, pedagogy and curriculum development is made explicit. Assessment is based on a visual presentation and a written rationale. Material & Virtual Cultures (Credit value: 30)
This module investigates the key role that new media technologies now play in the work of many artists and designers, in learning, and in the interpretation of art and artefacts in galleries and museums. Artists’ work and museum and galleries both provide a platform for critically considering the ways in which recent technological changes such as the Internet, virtual reality environments, artificial intelligence, surveillance technologies – to name only a few – have influenced the reception and dissemination of material culture. Artefacts as an Educational Resource (Credit value: 30)
In this module students will visit specialist museums and galleries and through a series of lectures, seminars and workshops investigate how artefacts give shape and meaning to our relationship with the world, our everyday lives, histories and cultures. They will question how societal and cultural values are represented by artefacts and their display, from Enlightenment debates on the relevance of cabinets of curiosity, to the dilemmas of contemporary curatorial and interpretative practices. Students will also study the hierarchies of art, craft and design with reference to trans-cultural and trans-historical values. Through the discussion and handling of artefacts, they will establish some of the lexical and taxonomic difficulties of classification. Responsive Galleries & Museums (Credit value: 30)
This module explores how museums, galleries and archives respond to the needs and potential of their onsite, offsite and virtual users, including schools, colleges and higher education. The emphasis is on informal learning, outreach and community work; and at audiences such as tourists and lifelong learners. It looks at varieties of providers including volunteers; and broadly at diversity. The Museum of London and the Metropolitan Archives are two of the case studies. The focus of the coursework is on how to develop projects and programmes for responsive museums and galleries and how to secure funding for them. Dissertation (Credit value: 60)
The Dissertation provides you with the opportunity to apply appropriate methodologies to your particular research interest. Depending on the focus of your research questions you can choose either the traditional written thesis, a practice based research route or a placement route within a museum, gallery or other context.
