Museums and Contemporary Art Centres

Code:

MMUS015

Acronym:

MCAC

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Museology

Instance: 2014/2015 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Heritage Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Masters in Museology

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MMUS	19	MMUS - Study Plan	1	-	3	26	81

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

Promote the construction of a critical and reflective thinking about museums and centers of contemporary art through the discussion of concepts and issues underlying the consolidation of these institutions and upgrading processes of collecting, exhibiting, conserving and mediating contemporary art. 

Learning outcomes and competences

At the end of this unit, it is expected that students acquire knowledge and skills to develop a critical and reflective thinking about:

- The process of institutionalization of the Museum of Contemporary Art, ie the underlying contexts of their
consolidation throughout its nearly two hundred years of existence, mainly about the prospects, roles, agents and challenges that arise from past decades;

- The poetics and politics of museums and contemporary art centers today, ie on the philosophy of the collections, the narratives and curatorial and/or expository discourses, dialogue/communication policies with the public and other agents.

It is also intended that students acquire knowledge and develop skills that enable them to develop and implement:

- Museum projects in the field of contemporary artistic practices (expository, mediation, study and documentation of collections);

- Research on musealization contemporary art.

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. Museums and Contemporary Art Centres: Concepts and issues

2. Museums and Contemporary Art Centres: Paradigmatic models or inspiring cases

3. Museums and Contemporary Art Centres in suspension: The musealization of contemporary art

4. Museums and Contemporary Art Centres and the artist

5. Museums and Contemporary Art Centres and their publics

Mandatory literature

Altshuler, Bruce 340; Collecting the new. ISBN: 0-691-11940-6
Barker, Emma 340; Contemporary cultures of display. ISBN: 0-300-07783-1
Buskirk, M.; The contingent object of contemporary art, MitPress, 2003
Gómez, D. L. A.; Hernández, J. D.; Uribe, C. A. F. ; El museo y la validación del arte, La Carreta Editores, Universidad de Antioquia, 2008
Hummelen, I.; Sillé, D.; Modern Art: Who Cares?: An interdisciplinary research project and an international symposium on the conservation of contemporary art, Foundation for the Conservation of Modern Art and Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage, 1999
Lorente, J. et al.; Museologia Crítica y Arte Contemporaneo, Prensas Universitárias de Zaragoza, 2003
Lorente, J.; Los museos de arte contemporâneo. Noción y desarrollo histórico, Trea, 2008
McClellan, A.; Art and its publics: Museum studies at the millennium, Blackwell Publishers, 2003
Preziosi, Donald; Brain of the earth.s body. ISBN: 0816633584
Putnam, J.; Art and artifact : The museum as medium, Thames and Hudson, 2001
Serota, N.; Experience or interpretation: The dilemma of museums of modern art, Thames and Hudson, 2000
Smith, T.; What is Contemporary Art?, University of Chicago Press, 2009
Weibel, P.; Buddensieg, A.; Contemporary Art and the Museum. A global perspective, Hantje Cantz Verlag, 2007

Comments from the literature

A specific and complementary bibliography for each session will be provided to students throughout the semester.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Tutorials and theoretical-practical sessions; presentation and discussion of questions and concepts using texts and audio-visual documents; whenever possible, presentation and discussion of practical case studies with guest lecturers; study visits with subsequent submission of analyses made in the context of the classroom; development of individual and group assignments.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	30,00
Trabalho escrito	70,00
Total:	100,00

Eligibility for exams

According to the Assessment Regulations and Course Regulations in force, namely:
75% of attendance (student attendance will be confirmed by signing an attendance sheet).

Calculation formula of final grade

Active participation in sessions – 30%

Final paper – 70%

Examinations or Special Assignments

Not applicable.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Accordance with Assessment Regulations in force.

Classification improvement

Accordance with Assessment Regulations in force.