Museums and Collections

Specialisation of: Arts and Culture
Degree: Master of Arts in Arts and Culture
Mode of Study: Full-time, part-time
Duration: 1 year
Start date: September, February
Language of instruction: English
Location: Leiden
Croho/isat code: 60087
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Museums and collections are in full motion now that their social functions are changing rapidly under political and economic pressure. There is increasing overlap between the traditional tasks of the museum curators, the educational department and the management. Globalisation and changing geopolitical relations have a major impact on the status of cultural heritage, including political, Legal and museological aspects.
In the Museums and Collections specialisation you can study collections from the past or museums and collections from the present day. You will gain insights into the development of the history of collecting and into the conceptual background of different types of collecting and the underlying social, political, economic and intellectual structures..

In the one-year Museums and Collections specialisation, these issues are studied in the context of the history and theory of collections and the cultural politics of museums and heritage.

The Department of Art History also offers a two-year Research master’s programme.

Prof. Kitty Zijlmans

Kitty Zijlmans

“The close relationship between art, science and material culture is key to the study of art history.”

“We teach students to take a fresh approach to art and to ask themselves: What is our own concept of art? We can’t just apply our Western concept of art to works from other parts of the world, which is what we have been doing for centuries. International art history doesn’t just consist of European and American art.

The basic principle of World Art Studies is that art history is an approach to art from across the world. We, therefore, take a global and comparative perspective.

For example, we compare Western art with that of Asia. This ‘global’ aspect is a must in the world of today with its enormous wealth of art production. Moreover, students also want to know how Western art relates to other art traditions. Also, science plays an important role in our master’s programme.

In the present-day, very changeable world of art, there is room for many new forms and concepts. Artists, for example, raise such issues as the extent to which man can be moulded, and they make us look differently at political and ethical questions. What does art say about the times we live in?

We also incorporate into the master’s unique museum collections in Leiden, from Naturalis and Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, to the University Library with its special collections. For us, the close relationship between art, science and material culture is key to the study of art history. We are constantly making cross-overs.”