Master's Degree Programmes in New York

Art Business

The Art Business Master's Degree Programme prepares students for careers in the international art enterprise. It combines knowledge and appreciation of art with an understanding of the international art markets and professional practices in the asset-based sector of the art world.

Various professions such as auctioneer, dealer, consultant, curator, investor, insurer, lawyer and critic are explored, and relevant professional art-world practice is studied. This includes marketing, the media, information technology, art content production, business communications, investment, insurance, valuation, art law and economics.

Contemporary Art

The Master's Degree Programme in Contemporary Art involves students in the study of art and its relationship to historical, social, political and economic change, from 1945 to the present.

Students gain an understanding of the connections between dominant cultural and philosophical ideas of the period and the visual languages of art, thereby recognising creative links and attaining critical insight.

With an eye toward future career planning, students visit commercial galleries, auction houses, art consultancies, private collections, public museums and institutions, and become familiar with their differing characteristics and functions.

American Fine & Decorative Art

The Master's Degree Programme in American Fine and Decorative Art prepares students in the understanding of art history as it relates to the cultural, historical, and stylistic significance of paintings, furniture, and decorative objects from the colonial period through to the modernist movements of the first half of the twentieth century.

The course of study includes museum-based sessions, visits to conservation studios, object-handling workshops, technical discussions and regional study trips. These sessions support lectures and seminars on American collecting, patronage, museum curatorship and the art market.

Students develop the skills of connoisseurship and debate issues of damage and restoration, economic and artistic value and explore the many professional options open to experts in the field.

Graduate Certificate

A two-semester Graduate Certificate is available to students who complete the required coursework for the MA but who do not wish to write a Master's Degree Thesis.