Museum Studies

Curatorial Studies

Department of Museum Studies

ARH203 - Curatorial Studies

Course Description

This course focuses on the purpose and practice of museums and galleries, exploring their organization and functioning. Tuscan museums - Terre di Siena’s museums, in particular - will offer good examples of active and responsive local, regional and national museums, covering a wide range of collections. Special attention will be paid to the relationship that ties up works and artifacts kept in museums with their places of provenance. Through on-site visits to local museums and art institutions, students gain direct knowledge of administrative structures and ideological directions of a wide range of public foundations and institutions dedicated to preserve heritage and propagate culture.

An internship in partnership with the Sienese Museum Foundation and/or the Deaf Museums European Project can be matched with the course: students will receive an introduction to their host institution and will be helped in accomplishing tasks that they will carry out there.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this course, successful students are expected to:

• Become aware of the cultures of display that surround the objects within the museum setting. Students should be able to understand, analyze and develop practical and theoretical display features.

• Become familiar with the conventions at work within the museum/gallery and learn to evaluate a series of different institutions. Students should be able to discuss about the different management plans of the visited museums, focusing on services to visitors management.

• Expand their knowledge of Tuscan and Sienese museums and galleries through on-site lectures and visits, engaging critically with the way in which these institutions market their collections and how they appeal to the visiting public.

• Develop an understanding of the issues and practicalities involved in collecting, displaying objects and communicating heritage to visitors.

TEACHING METHODS

∙We will have lectures, that will be supported by museum visits and talks. Students are expected to come to the seminars having read the assigned weekly readings, such that they can make active and informed contributions to discussions and presentations in class.

∙If you choose to have an internship in Museum Studies, it will be an integral part of the course allowing you to explore hands-on the possibility in practice of applying your learning outcomes. It could also constitute the main subject of your final project/paper.

Prerequisites

None

Student Learning Expectations

The aims of this course are:

1. to provide experience and exposure to professional work in a gallery or museum environment, by exploring in depth the organization and functioning of these cultural institutions in general

2. to have a direct knowledge of administrative structures and ideological directions of a wide range of public and private foundations and institutions dedicated to preserve heritage and propagate its knowledge in Italy

3. to offer an intellectual and practical preparation for entry into the curatorial profession.

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