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Art Gallery and Museum Studies MA (12 months Full-time or 24 months Part-Time)

Art Gallery and Museum Studies (AGMS) has been taught at The University of Manchester for more than 40 years. It is one of the longest established MA degree courses in museum studies in the country, and our alumni have reached senior positions in museums and galleries throughout the UK and overseas. 

Today, the AGMS course is continually being reviewed and developed in response to new research, emerging critical approaches and shifts in museum practice. Manchester's traditional focus on the art gallery remains, but is now balanced by course units which address history, theory and practice in a range of institutions.

Throughout the degree, you will examine diverse issues related to museum theory and practice, visit numerous museums, galleries and cultural organisations, and have many opportunities to discuss ideas and issues with professionals and academics in the field. The AGMS course combines both guided and independent study, and includes seminars, guest lectures and site visits. Information about all these, and about the modules of the AGMS programme, is included in these webpages and the AGMS handbook.

Eligibility

Academic entry qualification overview: Applicants will normally have a good honours degree (minimum 2:1) in a relevant discipline (such as, Art History, Archaeology, History, History and Philosophy of Science, Anthropology, Classics, English). In addition, they must have some work experience (including voluntary work) in a museum, gallery or other appropriate institution. Competition for places is high: in 2009/10, there were four applicants for every available place.

English Language: If your first language is not English, you need a minimum score of 7.0 on the IELTS test (including 7.0 in Writing) or 600 on the TOEFL paper-based test (250 computer-based), or the Cambridge Advanced Certificate (grades A-C) or the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (grades A-C).

Other international entry requirements: We accept a range of qualifications from different countries. For these and general requirements including English language see entry requirements from your country.

Course Fees

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2013, the tuition fees are as follows:

MA (full-time)

UK/EU students (per annum): £6,300

International students (per annum): £13,000

MA (part-time)

UK/EU students (per annum): £3,150

Student working

Course Structure

The AGMS MA is a modular degree with core and optional elements totalling to 180 credits. Core and options courses combine to make 120 credits with the remaining 60 credits allocated to the dissertation.

Semester One

Full-time students take two core course units: 'The Museum and its Contexts;, and 'Museums Objects and Exhibitions' (each 30 credits). Part-time students take 'The Museum and its Contexts' in Year 1 and 'Museums Objects and Exhibitions' in Year 2. These core units are designed to introduce you to key issues and ideas in museum practice, and also to different approaches to the study and analysis of museums. All elements in Semester One are compulsory:

• The Museum and its Contexts (30 credit core course)
• Museum Objects and Exhibitions (30 credit core course)

Semester Two

Semester two option courses build on the knowledge and understanding you have gained in semester one, and enable you to develop expertise in a particular disciplinary area of curating (eg  art, archaeology or ethnography) or sphere of museum practice (eg museum learning or management). Full-time students choose two option course units (option course are offered as 15 or 30 credits). Part-time students take one option course unit each year. The menu of options may include:

• Museum and Gallery Curating- with specialised routes (students select only one route):
  • Curating Art
  • Curating Archaeology
  • Digital Curating
  • Curating Ethnography
  • Museums of Conflict and Conscience
• Museum Policy and Management
• Creative Learning: Arts, Heritage and Education [jointly with MA in Arts Management, Policy and Practice]

Students may choose to take one option course in our sister MA Arts Management, Policy and Practice:

• Arts, Culture and Communities
• Business Strategies for the Arts (including Marketing, Finance, Resource and Business Development)
• Culture and Property 

or a course in a related subject area, say Archaeology, Art History and Visual Studies, History, or Social Anthropology.

Work Placement (Semesters 1 and 2)

One of the most popular aspects of the AGMS is the work placement that you undertake in a museum or gallery. Each placement involves a minimum of 20 days work on a specific project, such as exhibition development, collections management, or education programme. Many students find this such a positive experience that they carry on working in their museum when the work placement has finished, and each year a few students are offered jobs by their placement hosts. Work placements start in Semester 1 (November/December) and finish in Semester 2 (June).

You can take the work placement either as 15-credit or 30-credit course. Students who do the former also take two option courses in Semester 2 (one of 15 credits and one of 30 credits). Students who do the latter, take one 30-credit option course in Semester 2. See more information and a list of past work placements 

Read students' latest blog posts reflecting on their work placements

Dissertation (Semester 2 and Summer)

On successful completion of the coursework, you proceed to write a dissertation (60 credits) on a topic of your choice, agreed in conjunction with your dissertation supervisor. Dissertations, like articles (depending on the journal), may be strongly based on original primary source research, they might aim to re-interpret an already well-trawled area of the subject, or they might take up an approach somewhere between these two extremes. In all cases, however, the authors will have chosen and elaborated a body of relevant material which they bring to bear on a clearly defined issue. Dissertation planning and supervision takes place in Semester 2 (February  end of June) and you continue with your independent writing in July and August. You can either undertake a standard dissertation or a practice-based dissertation: 

• Standard: 12-15,000 words
• Practice-based A: Exhibition. An exhibition, show or plan thereof. Outcome - exhibition and/or plan plus 8-10,000 words reflection
• Practice-based B: Policy. Student to develop a piece of museum policy. Outcome - policy or report plus max 8-10,000 words reflection.
• Practice-based C: Digital/Online (building on skills developed in Digital Curating). Outcome - digital media application plus max 8-10,000 words reflection.

Examples of past dissertation titles include:

• University museums and social inclusion
• Communicating Cultures: an assessment of the use of artist interventions in non-art museums
• Evaluating the educative potential of textile collections within the museum
• Missing audiences: the relationship between ethnicity and museum visiting in and around Southall
• Restitution in the regions:  The Lindisfarne Gospels and the Lewis Chessmen
• Making the penal past relevant: the interpretation of history and execution in prison museums
• Revitalising Musical Instruments: Museum Display, Access and Adaptation
• Histories and Her-stories: narrative and gender in museum display
• The development of Caribbean museums and the formation of national and cultural identities
• Natural history collections: Archiving the natural world
• 'Dead body porn': Anatomical controversy in the exhibition space
• Locating Scotland's Identity within the Museum of Scotland.
• The presentation and interpretation of archaeological heritage in on-site museums.
• Representing the past: archaeology in the museum
• Recognising remains: the displays of Egyptian mummies in museums
• Photography, Community and the E-volving Museum
• Social Media and the Reinterpretation of Digital Heritage
• Museum Audience Development in a Digital Age: Using Social Networking Sites to Engage New Audiences

Study Details

Most teaching takes place in small interactive seminar groups, involving, as appropriate, directed-reading, fieldwork in museums and galleries, staff and student presentations, discussion, debate, problem-solving and group-work.

Most courses run one day/week over 12 weeks and there are variations in the number of class hours per teaching day depending on the course/week (i.e. 2-5 hours). As a general rule, a 30 credit course includes 300 learning hours, that can be roughly divided as follows: a third in classes or class-related work; a third in independent study; and a third in preparation of assignments.

Students undertake also a group exhibition project (as part of the 'Museum Objects and Exhibitions course') using the display case installed in the foyer of Mansfield Cooper Building. The exhibition project aims to: 

• Offer students an opportunity to critically reflect on the themes, lectures and readings of the course by developing an exhibit
• Provide students a practical aspect of the course's teaching and learning
• Develop students' team working skills 
• Provide a showcase for students work

The group exhibition project is not formally assessed but it a prerequisite of the course and must be completed. See previous years' exhibition projects.  

Assessment

The assessment of courses is as follows: 

• Museology research seminars
• 'Showcase' seminars at the Manchester Museum
• Institute for Cultural Practices events
• Research forum for PhD students

Full-Time or Part-time?

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