Museums and Curating MA (Taught)

5th in the UK for History of Art, Architecture and Design (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025)

10th in the UK for History of Art (The Guardian University Guide 2025)

97% of our research overall in Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory was assessed to be world leading or internationally excellent (REF 2021)

About the course
Learn the skills to help you join the exciting world of museums, galleries and the cultural heritage sector.

You’ll learn from academics who have direct experience in exhibition curation and researching collections in museums and galleries. You’ll also learn from experts on site, with visits to world-renowned institutions such as the British Museum and National Gallery.

Alongside practical skills, you’ll gain an understanding of how the museums and gallery sector works. You’ll also discover the range of jobs available in the sector.

As an Arts History and Museum Curating MA student at Sussex, you gain invaluable professional experience working with established curators. Alongside a team of fellow students, you’ll address a current issue for a specific museum. This is a specially-designed live professional brief between March and July. You’ll get the opportunity to work on some of the pressing issues facing the sector today through this professional project. In previous years, museums have included projects relating to:

• disability and access

• Black Lives Matter

• queer heritage

• women’s histories.

Participating museums have included Charleston, the British Museum, Towner Eastbourne and Brighton & Hove Museums.

In class, you’ll explore the history, theory and politics of art institutions and build a critical framework for the practice of curating. There will also be frequent group visits to museums and galleries in Sussex, London and the southeast. You’ll learn firsthand from exhibition curators and our faculty about collections, curation, acquisitions and loans, institutional histories, permanent galleries, and temporary exhibitions.

About Sussex
Our courses, research, culture and campus aim to stimulate, excite and challenge. From scientific discovery to global policy, from student welfare to career development, Sussex innovates and takes a lead. And today, in every part of society and across the world, you'll find someone from Sussex making an original and valuable contribution.

Location
Study on our beautiful, green campus on the edge of the South Downs National Park and just minutes from the vibrant seaside city of Brighton & Hove. We’re near to Gatwick airport and just over an hour from London.