We normally expect students to have a First or Upper Second-class honours degree or its overseas equivalent in a humanities-based subject area.
We accept a range of qualifications from different countries that equate to a UK 2.1.
Applicants that do not meet the academic entry qualification criteria but with evidence of extensive professional experience in relevant practice (3+ years) may be considered on an individual basis.
Applicants should also be able to demonstrate experience and/or significant understanding of professional issues relevant to art galleries, museums, or other related organisations.
Partnering with the Whitworth on our new Curating Art in Practice programme will offer emerging curators an exciting opportunity to learn with the Institute for Cultural Practices and leading professionals from within a real-world gallery setting.
This hands-on experience will provide students with the critical perspectives and cutting-edge professional competencies required for sustaining careers in the art gallery sector.
Art curating is at the heart of today's museums and galleries. It provides the critical and practical tools to communicate ideas, experiences and identities with audiences using artworks and collections.
This MA is taught at the Whitworth, an internationally renowned art gallery and museum at the University of Manchester. The course combines academic excellence and critical theory with an innovative practice-based approach. You'll explore contemporary approaches to curating art for diverse audiences while developing expertise in collection management, exhibition research and delivery, artist commissioning, civic engagement and learning, and audience and digital development.
The course is delivered by leading academics from the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, curators and museum specialists from the Whitworth, and visiting curators, artists and practitioners. You’ll study in an internationally recognised institution with an award-winning transcultural programme, providing an inspiring environment that connects your studies directly to live curatorial practice.
You’ll work with collections, engage with current curatorial questions, and build professional networks. The course provides an opportunity to develop expertise in global art, its histories and curation, while exploring the ethical and museological challenges of work centred on decolonial, Indigenous and transcultural perspectives.
Whether you're just starting your career or wishing to develop professionally as a curator, this course equips you with the knowledge, practical experience and museological context to achieve your ambitions. You'll develop skills in curation, research, communication and critical thinking that are valued and transferable across the cultural industries.
The Whitworth Art Gallery
This programme is taught with the Whitworth Art Gallery , one of the University’s cultural assets. Students will be taught core course units in the Study Centre of the gallery, enabling sustained hands-on engagement with the collection, exhibition spaces, and the wider institution.
Teaching will be co-delivered with professional staff of the Whitworth to ensure maintenance of up-to-date teaching excellence in professional practice, based on collective institutional experience and expertise, and as a direct opportunity to develop employability skills.
Additionally, guest speakers from curatorial roles outside of the Whitworth will be featured in all core course units.
Culture in Manchester and Links with Industry
Manchester states within its local cultural strategy that it aims to become the most culturally democratic city in the world and has an arts offering to help it achieve this ambition.
Along with the biennial Manchester International Festival, and its new home, the Factory, a multi-million-pound large-scale arts production house and venue, the city-region of Greater Manchester has a host of brilliant arts organisations, including a network of galleries, museums and heritage sites, as well as digital and outdoor arts, festivals, studio collectives and community-based groups.
We are lucky to be based at the heart of a vibrant cultural ecosystem, with these organisational partners. Outside the Whitworth itself, the university boasts several top-class cultural institutions, including Manchester Museum and the John Rylands Library.