The BA Curating can provide students with the intellectual and practical skills they need to realize their career ambitions, combining classroom-based learning with hands-on experience in museums and galleries.
Within the classroom, students gain an overview of major developments in art history – something essential for any budding curator. They will also learn about the history and theory of exhibition design, with a particular emphasis on how curatorial choices shape the experiences while viewing artworks and the other objects on display in museums and galleries.
The Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA), Europe’s largest collection of Latin American art, will offer students a place to experiment with installing artworks. Besides getting their feet wet with the more tactical aspects of installing art, these experiences will open their eyes to how curatorial decisions transform the kinds of stories that artworks tell when displayed alongside others.
Frequent, staff-led visits to London museums and galleries will also expose students to the latest developments in curating, and they will be strongly encouraged to conduct a placement in order to gain exposure to the inner workings of a museum, auction house or gallery.
To ensure students are prepared to meet the challenges facing curators in the 21st century, opportunities to cultivate digital skills will be available throughout the course. For example, for the final project, they will curate an online exhibition, for which they will produce a virtual walk-through of the exhibition space and develop digitally-accessible interpretative material for all objects on display.
Essex is the ideal choice for a BA in curating. It is ranked 6th among Art History departments in the UK for research excellence (REF 2014, mainstream universities, THE 2014). This is one of the few leading art history programs that offers an undergraduate course specializing in curating and students will be taught by the expert staff in their very first year—another rarity in UK art history courses.
