The Art and Visual Culture MA at University odf Westminster is part of the Cultural and Literary Studies Suite, a cluster of four MAs that bring together academics, curators and practitioners who share a commitment to investigating modern and contemporary culture from aesthetic, critical, literary, and experiential perspectives.
This MA balances historical and theoretical debates in the field of visual culture studies with a rigorous interrogation of cultural practices across a range of topics, including: contemporary visual arts; the visual and material culture of the city; modernism in art and architecture; popular and avant-garde cultures; fin de siècle visual culture; digital culture and new media technologies; migration, identity and gender as represented in cultural practices; activism and popular politics; theory and practice of archive research; and critical theories of modern and contemporary culture.
Many of our modules include class visits to leading museums, galleries and archives in London: this provides a fantastic opportunity to engage directly with the city’s cultural institutions and intellectual resources, in doing so providing you with sophisticated critical thinking skills as well as practical knowledge of how the cultural sector operates.
Aims
Work experience
If you choose to take our Work Placement in Cultural Institutions module, you can gain practical experience working in your area of interest, enhancing your professional skills and making connections within your chosen industry.
Recent work placements have taken place at institutions including:
- Arts Catalyst
- British Film Institute
- British Museum
- Camden Arts Centre
- Chinese Film Festival
- Film London
- Museum of London
- Victoria & Albert Museum
- Wellcome Trust
Job roles
This course will prepare you for a variety of roles, including:
- Cultural consultant
- Curator
- Editor
- Events and communications manager
- Journalist
- Media arts project manager
- MPhil/PhD study in fields such as art history and visual culture, cultural studies, and media
- Public relations specialist
The Art and Visual Culture MA is delivered in both full-time and part-time modes, with both September and January start dates. This means that when you start your course you'll be joining a lively community of students, some, like yourself, embarking on the MA and some continuing their studies with us.
The course is modular, with each single module valued at 20 credits, and the dissertation at 60 credits. For the MA, you'll be required to accumulate the total of 180 credits over the course of your degree. Normally, full-time students take one core module and two options per semester and work on the dissertation in the summer. Part-time students would typically take one core module and one option module per semester in the first year and complete further two option modules and the dissertation in their second year of their MA.
Skillset, BJTC (The Broadcast Jounalism Training Council), IMI (The institute of Medical Illustrators), JAMES (Joint Audio Media Educational Support)
