Electives
Period 3
Art Market 1
Coordinator: James Goodwin
Description: This nine-session tutorial, which is almost unique in the world, introduces students into the art market in all its forms, from its beginnings in 15th-century Antwerp to the recent auction of works by Damien Hirst. Other subjects include all aspects of art valuation, market operation, legal aspects and crime. The first four sessions are in period 3, the last five sessions are in module 4.
Goals: student will learn to understand the development and operation of the art market.
Instruction Language: English.
Prerequisites: none
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching Methods: PBL, Lecture(s), Paper, Working visit.
Assessment methods: Final Paper, Participation, Presentation
Key Words: Art Market
Creative Cities 1
Coordinator: Philip Lawton and Graeme Evans
Recent decades have seen a dramatic shift away from a notion of culture as a public good to one that understands culture to be at the core of the economic development of post-industrial spaces. Cities in particular are understood as important hubs due to their critical mass of artists, cultural entrepreneurs, intellectuals and other knowledge workers.
This four-week tutorial investigates the reasons behind this shift and analyzes its theoretical and practical consequences. Through reading and discussing key publications on the creative city in the fields of urban studies, cultural and media studies, policy analysis and economic sociology, students will gain a basic understanding of the role of culture and creativity in urban economic development.
Goals: In this course, students will learn about the origins, theories, and policy implications of the concept of the ‘creative city’. The course is broken down into four themes: 1): Origins, Evolution and Theories; 2): Place; 3): People and Economy; 4): Policies and Planning. By the end of the course, students should be able to connect the various elements of the four different themes. This includes the role of artists and other ‘creative actors’ within urban transformation, the role of arts and cultural policy in urban regeneration, and the broader significance of ‘culture’ in the political economy of city development.
Instruction Language: English
Prerequisites: none.
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching methods: PBL, Lecture(s), working visit(s)
Assessment methods: Final paper, Participation, Presentation
Key Words: Creative City, Creative Industries, Culture and Urban Development
Visitor Research 1
Coordinator: Anna Elffers
Description: An introductory workshop about visitor research in cultural organizations. Most cultural organizations use this tool every now and then. It can serve many goals: from ‘knowing who is visiting’ to ‘evaluating a special exhibition or program’ to ‘getting more information about specific target groups’. In this workshop we will go into the different goals as well as into the different methods that can be used researching visitors. And especially into the choices cultural organizations have to make in this. When is visitor research necessary? What questions can be answered by visitor research? What methods are right to answer these questions?
Goals: students will get a basic knowledge and understanding of the importance, goals and methods of visitor research.
Instruction Language: English
Prerequisites: none
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching Methods: PBL, Assignment(s), Lecture(s), Paper, Working visit(s).
Assessment methods: Final paper, Participation, Presentation
Key Words: Visitor Research, Art Marketing.
Cultural Education 1
Coordinator: Marion Prieckaerts
Description: Cultural education may rejoice a global boost of attention during the last decade. This attention spreads out from local village schools up to national governments and international organizations like UNESCO. More and more school-educators, social workers, politicians and other stakeholders embrace the benefits of art and cultural education on youth and adults, being it for the claimed effects on either aesthetic, personal, moral, artistic or social development.
But cultural education has a wide range of forms and contents, a broad gamut of objectives and claimed effects, and various theoretical underpinnings and didactic foundations. In this elective students will take an introductory look at this diversity.
They will also analyze different points of view upon cultural education, like: education in the arts or through the arts; cultural education at schools compared to extramural cultural activities; the various didactic possibilities of active, receptive and reflective forms of cultural education.
Furthermore students will study some important theories which are adapted by cultural education: Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, the different Learning Styles of Kolb, the typologies of Hein and Lindauer concerning Museum Education and Lois Hetlands Project Zero at Harvard.
Besides studying theories the students will do some practical work on possibilities how to use these theories in real-life practice of cultural education projects.
Goals: students will gain a basic knowledge and understanding of theories, goals and methods of cultural education.
Instruction Language: English
Prerequisites: none
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching methods: PBL, working visits
Assessment methods: Final Paper, Presentation, Participation
Key Words: Cultural Education
Art Criticism
Coordinator: Karel Vanhaesebrouck
Description: Writing about art is all but easy and requires a multifaceted craftsmanship. A good art critic is able to bring under words his or her opinion on specific art works or practices in a sharp and accessible language. He or she uses theoretical expertise as an analytical tool not as a means in itself. But, first and foremost, he or she disposes of a good pair of eyes and ears and is able to contemplate and evaluate an artistic intention with critical empathy and without detaching it from its own context.
This elective is about analysing art and writing about art, both visual and performing arts. During an introductory session, students will read a number of crucial texts on art criticism (James Elkins) and on the position of the art critic (Sarah Thornton). Each student will write at least two reviews under the supervision of the tutor, one on an exhibition, one on a theatre play or performance. The reviews will be discussed in group during the tutorial.
Goals: the students will learn to analyze and write about art and will gain an understanding of the position of the art critic.
Instruction language: English
Prerequisites: none.
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching Methods: PBL, Assignment, Lecture(s), Working visits.
Assessment methods: Final paper, participation.
Key Words: Art Citicism
Curatorship 1
Coordinator: Paula van den Bosch
Description: In this elective students learn to analyze and understand the role and work of a curator.
Goals: The students will gain a basic understanding of the role and work of a curator.
Instruction Language: English
Prerequisites: none
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching methods: PBL, Assignment(s), Working visits.
Assessments methods: Final paper, Presentation, Participation
Key Words: Curatorship
Theory and Practice of Cultural Memory 1
Coordinator: Meike Wulf
Description: Cultural memory is the ‘bread and butter’ for all practitioners in the field of heritage studies. What then is this chameleon like creature called collective memory? How to define cultural and social memories and more so the dynamics of memory politics? Students will get a firm grounding in the theory of memory studies, but they will also look at various ‘memory agents’ working with /and producing public memory for museums, memorial sites such as for the many war cemeteries located in the Euregio region. What is their agenda setting and what are the latest educational concepts geared to the public? Finally students will also consider the reception of these projects by a larger public. Which concepts work and which are the ones less successful and why?
This module runs over the academic periods three and four (12 weeks in total): while the first four weeks will be devoted to acquiring in-depth knowledge in the field of memory studies (i.e. concepts of cultural memory, politics of history) the second period will be reserved for the more practical application in the form of various excursions, documentary movie screenings, and smaller projects (group or individual) linking theory and practice.
Goals: Students will gain in-depth knowledge in the field of memory studies (i.e. concepts of cultural memory, politics of history).
Instruction Language: English.
Prerequisites: none.
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching Methods: PBL, Assignment, Lecture(s), Working visit(s).
Assessment methods: Final paper, Participation, Presentation.
Key Words: Cultural Memory, Memory Studies, Politics of History.
Period 4
Art Market II
Coordinator: James Goodwin
Description: This nine-session tutorial, which is almost unique in the world, introduces students into the art market in all its forms, from its beginnings in 15th-century Antwerp to the recent auction of works by Damien Hirst. Other subjects include all aspects of art valuation, market operation, legal aspects and crime. The first four sessions are in period 3, the last five sessions are in module 4.
Goals: student will learn to understand the development and operation of the art market.
Instruction Language: English.
Prerequisites: none
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching Methods: PBL, Lectures, Assignment, Paper, Working visits.
Assessment methods: Final Paper, Participation, Presentation
Key Words: Art Market
Creative Cities II
Coordinator: Philip Lawton and Graeme Evans
Description and Goals: See description and goals of Creative Cities I. In this period the focus will be less on the history and theory of the creative city, and more on policy.
Instruction Language: English.
Prerequisites: Creative City I.
Recommended Reading: -
Teaching Methods: PBL, Lecture(s), Assignment, Paper, Working visits.
Assessment methods: Final Paper, Participation, Presentation.
Key Words: Creative City, Culture and Urban Development
Visitor Research II
Coordinator: Anna Elffers
Description: The focus in this tutorial is on the role of visitor and market research in cultural organizations. How has the use of visitor research developed in cultural organizations and art institutions, in the Netherlands and in other countries? What is being researched and how are organizations like museums and theatres using the results? What exactly is the difference between visitor and market research? Students will learn to choose the right research method for answering the questions an organization has, and will practice to carry out an original research project from beginning to end. The final goal is to enable everybody who takes this tutorial to use visitor research as a useful tool in their future jobs in the cultural sector, whether it is as marketeer, programmer or financial manager. By the end of the 8 week period all students are supposed to have carried out an individual research project, if necessary with help from the other tutorial students, and have written a report about the results.
Goals: The students will learn how to use visitor research as a useful tool for their research (thesis) and in their internship and/or future jobs.
Instruction Language: English
Prerequisites: none
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching Methods: PBL, Assignment(s), Lecture(s), Paper, Working visit(s).
Assessment methods: Final paper, Participation, Presentation
Key Words: Visitor Research, Art Marketing.
Cultural Education II
Coordinator: Marion Prieckaerts
Description and goals: see description and goals of Cultural Education II.
Instruction Language: English
Prerequisites: Cultural Education II
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching methods: PBL, Assignments, Working visits
Assessment methods: Final Paper, Presentation, Participation
Key Words: Cultural Education
Curatorship II
Coordinator: Paula van den Bosch
Description and goals: see description and goals of Curatorship 1.
Instruction Language: English
Prerequisites: Curatorship I
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching methods: PBL, Assignment(s), Working visits.
Assessments methods: Final paper, Presentation, Participation
Key Words: Curatorship, Museum, Exhibition
Theory and Practice of Cultural Memory II
Coordinator: Meike Wulf
Description and Goals: see description and goals of Theory and Practice of Cultural Memory 1.
Instruction Language: English.
Prerequisites: Theory and Practice of Cultural memory I.
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching Methods: PBL, Assignment, Lecture(s), Working visits.
Assessment methods: Final paper, Participation, Presentation.
Key Words: Cultural Memory, Memory Studies, Politics of History.
Culture and City Marketing.
Coordinator: Dirk Noordman
Description: This tutorial provides students with a deeper understanding of the city identities, city marketing and the place of urban symbols (landmarks such as the Guggenheim Museum and icons such as Erasmus) in positioning Western European cities. The tutor will explain how he applied his own theory to Dutch cities in his book Cultuur in de citymarketing. Participants select a historic city (in the Netherlands, Germany or Belgium) they are interested in, and study this city’s potential for using culture in city marketing. This involves visiting the local archives and museum and interviewing civil servants in charge of culture, tourism or communication. Participants then write a paper about their experiences.
Goals: Students will gain a basic understanding of theories and practices concerning culture and city marketing and will acquire (research) skills in city marketing.
Instruction Language: English
Prerequisites: none
Recommended Literature: -
Teaching Methods: PBL, Assignment, Lecture, Paper, Working visit
Assessment methods: Final Paper, Participation, Presentation
Key Words: Culture, City Marketing
