The Master's program in Art Studies in Kassel is a postgraduate program with a wide range of content on the history and theory of art, which can be followed by a completed Bachelor's program in Art Studies or Art History. The aim of the Master's program is to deepen your basic knowledge as well as to provide you with competencies with regard to the various professional fields that are open to graduates of the Art History program. In addition, the master's program qualifies you for a doctorate.
The program is designed in such a way that you are able to set your own individual focus. Against the background of current specialist discourses, the research fields represented by the professorships deal, among other things, with modern art history, in particular North German painting of the 15th century and Dutch painting of the 17th century, core questions of aesthetics and art theory, as well as the development of fine art in the 20th and 21st centuries, which also includes the theory and history of the exhibition system. In addition, questions concerning strategies of art mediation and art criticism, cultural conditions of artistic and curatorial action, questions concerning artistic research and topics of art-historical history of science are explored. The Master's program in Art History is completed with a Master's thesis on a topic of your choice.
The active involvement of students in research, cooperation with other departments of the University of Kassel or national as well as international institutions allow for practical experience in the context of project seminars in addition to a research-oriented deepening of the respective thematic focus. In addition, excursions to international exhibition venues are just as much a part of the Master's program as the possibility of a stay abroad supported by various funding or scholarship programs of the University of Kassel.
The art studies program is based at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, which not only promotes individual support for students in their academic work, but also encourages exchange with neighboring programs in fine arts, visual communication, and product design.
As a study location, Kassel with its numerous special libraries offers optimal conditions for research in art studies. These include, for example, the departmental library of the art academy, the state library and Murhard library of the city of Kassel with a prominent manuscript department, the documenta archive as a special library on 20th century and contemporary art, and the Wilhelmshöhe museum library. The attractiveness of the location is complemented by the third largest density of museums in Germany, a lively, young art and cultural scene, and the documenta, which takes place every five years and is one of the most important exhibitions of contemporary art in the world and a platform for current discourses on art theory.
