A member of the public visiting the Another Crossing exhibition at The Box Plymouth in collaboration with Arts University Plymouth and Fuller Craft 2022

MA Museum Studies

Our Masters programmes offer you an intensive personal programme of creative and stimulating study within a supportive critical and practical framework that enables you to examine, interrogate and reflect upon the nature and role of your chosen practice.

A group of visitors look around the Another Crossing exhibition at The Box Plymouth in collaboration with Arts University Plymouth and Fuller Craft in 2022

A group of visitors look around the Another Crossing exhibition at The Box Plymouth, organised in collaboration with Arts University Plymouth and Fuller Craft in 2022.

<p dir="ltr">MA Museum Studies at Arts University Plymouth offers a unique opportunity to reimagine the role of the museum within contemporary socio-political debates, working with <a href="https://www.theboxplymouth.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>The Box</strong></a>, Plymouth's award-winning museum, art collection, gallery and archive (also home to the <a href="https://www.theboxplymouth.com/collections/moving-image" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">South West Film &amp; Television Archive</a>), and a range of regional and national museums and collections including Tate St Ives, Tate Britain Archives, and RAMM Exeter.<br /></p>
Tate Crit Club Photo by Laura Palmer
<p dir="ltr">The museum as a cultural form will be reimagined and explored through debates around decolonisation, the repatriation of objects, distributed digital archives and the educational role of museums, and diversifying collections and audiences. Through this programme you will propose a project that engages ideas of the contemporary museum using methods including socially engaged practice, community building and and creative education as a productive and mobilising force that is now vital in a rapidly transforming museum sector. Your work will be situated in a city and region with a pervasive colonial and military heritage. </p> <p dir="ltr">MA Museum Studies at Arts University Plymouth builds on the context of Plymouth as a centre for contemporary art and culture, in light of recent events such Mayflower 400 (2020), Another Crossing: Artists Revisit the Mayflower Voyage (2022) and British Art Show 9 (2022-23).<br /></p>
The Box Plymouth view of exterior of the building

The Box, Plymouth's award-winning museum, art gallery and archive, with a 2022 European Museum of the Year Special Commendation, located a short two minute walk from our main Tavistock Place campus.

<p dir="ltr">You’ll have support to pursue your own research directions through the university’s interdisciplinary art, design and media facilities and our specialist library: examining the complex process of design, museum curatorship and interpretation; interrogating theories of exhibition and display, audiences and museology; and initiating research projects focused on the practical, pedagogical and theoretical questions underpinning museum education and audience outreach.</p> <p dir="ltr">Through your investigation of the components and conventions of exhibition display, community and audience outreach and museum education, you will be prepared to enter the workplace in a wide range of roles in museums, curation, heritage and arts management, as well as for further postgraduate research.</p>
Visitors to the Another Crossing exhibition at The Box Plymouth in collaboration with Arts University Plymouth and Fuller Craft in 2022
<p dir="ltr">Offered within the context of a specialist arts university, this programme is focused on the future of the museum. Through your investigation of the components and conventions of exhibition display, community and audience outreach and museum education, you will be prepared to enter the workplace in a wide range of roles. Graduates become museum educators, curators, cultural programme managers, art critics, museum outreach coordinators, heritage and public arts professionals, or alternatively specialise further in postgraduate research.</p> <p dir="ltr">We are committed to developing ethical, sustainable design practices as outlined in our <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/strategic-plan">Strategic Vision</a> and this ethos is embedded in all MA courses.</p>
<p>Arts University Plymouth graduates are offered a <strong>discount of 15% on Masters programme fees</strong>, regardless of when they studied with us previously. The discount applies if you studied on one of our pre-degree, foundation or undergraduate programmes.</p>
<p>MA applicants are normally expected to have an undergraduate degree at 2:2 or above. However, the strength of your creative practice and other forms of experience will be taken into account at the interview stage and we encourage you to start a conversation with us.</p>
<p>Your portfolio should give us an indication of the work that you have made, organised or been involved in. For our postgraduate arts, craft and design courses, we expect to see examples of work you have created. </p> <p>For our MA Museum Studies course, we don't expect you to have traditional artworks; instead you can share examples of projects you have worked on, classroom experiences you have created, and so on. Please ensure that your portfolio includes descriptions, website links and visuals if they are available.</p>
<p>The best deadline to submit your MA application by is <strong>1 July</strong>, however please be reassured that we can take late applications until the start of the course if places are still available.</p>
<ul><li><strong>Email: </strong><a href="mailto:admissions@aup.ac.uk">admissions@aup.ac.uk</a></li><li><strong>Tel:</strong> +44 (0)1752 203434</li></ul>
<p>Click the button below to book an informal online chat with Postgraduate Course Leader, <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/people/tom-milnes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Tom Milnes</a>.</p>