Program Overview

Supported by a large team of art museum and gallery specialists our Art Museum and Gallery Studies programme takes museum studies in a new direction. It focuses entirely on art institutions from beginning to end. In doing so, it recognises that art museums and galleries are a distinctive kind of institution and that they are best understood in relation to other kinds of art institution (biennials, art fairs, kunsthalles and so on), rather than in relation to other kinds of heritage attraction. In this programme we pay equal attention to collection-focused art museums and to contemporary art institutions. Our aim is to prepare you for work in a wide range of careers in the art sector and to understand that art sector as it is now.

Museum Studies at the University of Leicester has been the world leader in its field since its birth in 1966. It is one of few autonomous museum studies departments in the world. It was the first to develop an Art Museum and Gallery Studies programme. It is also home to CRÍA, an innovative new organisation that researches the institutions of art.

This programme is shaped as a journey from student to art professional. You will begin by locating and deconstructing the art performances of both the great art museums and contemporary art institutions of various kinds. You will then explore how you can become an expert in the field and the role of the art curator. You will study how to manage and care for art objects and collections, and how to shape art experiences for the public so as to foster social change and life enrichment.

The programme concludes with an exhibition project that will involve you in working with artists and curating artworks, a series of study visits, a research project of your own design, and an eight-week work placement at a museum or gallery.