New Master Programe: Expanded Museum Studies (Teaser-Clip)

Expanded Museum Studies @ University of Applied Arts Vienna

In establishing the programme Expanded Museum Studies, the University of Applied Arts is instituting a field of study and research that aims to examine, expand and redefine the notion of museum. A fundamental aspect of the programme is its emphasis on the interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary practical intertwining of various approaches adopted in the areas of museology, art and cultural studies, conservation, and art-research methodology. The central focus is on critical analysis of the historical and current models of what museums have been or could be and of museums seen as contact zones and places where true value can make itself felt – and this in an explicitly broad sense, that is, in the context of the various forms of practice, the various configurations, the various forms of discourse connected to these places of contact, and also in the context of the demands that are placed on them. The programme of study is based on topics of current academic and artistic interest as well as on a society-oriented understanding of art and culture in a global and cross-cultural perspective, an orientation that is particularly strong at the University of Applied Arts.

The essential elements comprising the programme of study are: the range of courses offered by the Department for Expanded Museum Studies, various forms of internal and external cooperation partnerships specifically aligned with the programme structure, and a Platform for Inter- and Transdisciplinary Exchange, which accompanies the entire course of study and serves as a transparent space for reflection and action in addition to offering the opportunity to share work in larger contexts. Moreover, the entire range of courses offered at the University of Applied Arts is put to advantage within the framework of this programme.

The subjects of study are not thematically limited to the fine or applied arts. On the contrary, the programme of study very much encourages looking at cultural production and its material/immaterial museum-related infrastructures from multidisciplinary points of view that also take intersectionality into account. Exploration of the museum as a concrete field of work is aimed at addressing fundamental questions related to current and historical processes of upheaval in society as a whole. These and other aspects of inquiry are dealt with within the framework of various forms of individual and collaborative reflection that are connected with practical, experimental, theoretical and mediating activities.

Ideally, the students should become actively involved in orienting the programme of study with respect both to subject matter and to methodology as well as in conceptualising and organizing public events (e.g., within the framework of the Platform that accompanies the programme), thereby helping to strengthen the programme’s democratic structure.

University of Applied Arts Vienna, 2021

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