Body Image, UNSW Galleries. Photo by Brett Boardman.
Tasked with shaping the creative and cultural landscape of the future, the newly debuted Masters of Curating and Cultural Leadership at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) faculty of Art & Design seeks to create independent arts professionals, able to undertake leadership, research and innovation across a wide range of curating, arts and cultural management contexts.
UNSW Art & Design has twenty years of experience educating the next generation in the field of arts and cultural management. The postgraduate course provides pathways for both those with backgrounds in arts organizations and for those who wish to enter curating or cultural leadership from other professional backgrounds such as law and finance.
Previously offering a Master of Arts Administration, Director of Master of Curating and Cultural Leadership Dr Lizzie Muller said that the new course sets out to redefine ideals around leadership within the arts sector.
‘With the idea of cultural leadership, we wanted to make it clear that it wasn’t just about being a cog in a machine or necessarily about hierarchy,’ said Muller. ‘It was more about contributing, identifying a gap, understanding when there are opportunities and knowing what needs to be done,’ said Muller.
Internships are an integral part of the syllabus and students are also able to engage with live projects through curatorial studios called ‘Curating Social Space’. This semester, in collaboration with Campbelltown Arts Centre, students will be curating ‘Winter Wonderland’ –a historical and cultural exhibition at a semi-ruined fun park in Western Sydney.
‘The course itself is incredibly well-networked so it works in collaboration with lots of different organisations, some of those then go on to be hosts for interns,’ said Muller.
Diverse alumni from the UNSW Art & Design include Director of the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC Melissa Chiu, Executive Director of Artspace Sydney Alexie Glass-Kantor, Assistant Director of the National Gallery of Australia Michael Baldwin, Head Curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of NSW Wayne Tunnicliffe, Senior Curator at the National Gallery of Singapore Russell Storer, as well as current curator at Campbelltown Arts Centre Megan Monte among many others across Australia and internationally.
Adapting to new technologies and ways people consume culture, Muller said that the course can create leaders from all kinds of backgrounds, embracing diversity and supporting emerging voices and perspectives.
‘Our vision of cultural leadership is quite different to other courses that are out there at the moment. There are lots of other courses being developed around the country that look at a narrow definition of leadership,’ said Muller.
‘For us, this is not about the traditional modes of leadership. We see cultural leadership as something that can come from anywhere. That is not restricted by age or by status within the organisation. It’s the kind of vision of leadership that suggests you can be 24 years old with a really good idea and with social media and entrepreneurial energy at your disposal and you can actually make an important difference and transform the cultural landscape’.
To apply & for more information visit UNSW Art & Design.
