Throughout the first two semesters the students attend several events exclusively designed for the master’s program. The group affiliation is thus being strengthened. During the first year, the students are in weekly contact with the cooperating museums; they are part of discussions about the conception and realization of exhibitions and the presentation of collections. University seminars provide an opportunity for the participants to extend their expertise. Furthermore, criteria and categories of art criticism as well as academic principles of art theory and aesthetics will be discussed.
A course module on the history of the museum and exhibitions complements the program. A two-month internship, preferably resulting in the collaboration in an exhibition project, offers an insight into the curatorial departments of a museum or exhibition institution. The excursion with visits to museums, exhibitions, and meetings with the curators in situ will take place in the first year, as well. The destinations of previous excursions were Amsterdam, Basel and Zurich, Brussels and Antwerp, Dakar, Istanbul, London, Paris, Singapore and Jakarta, Stockholm, Vienna.
Fundamental to the second year is the development of the master’s thesis, and in-depth work on object-related approaches combined with theoretical inquiry. The exams will be taken at Goethe-University or Hochschule für Bildende Künste–Städelschule.
