Art that is alive - galleries, museums, studios

elective courses

The aim of the course is to overcome the currently dominating (especially in university education) contact with visual arts through the media. The course involves meetings at museums, galleries and also art studios. Guests invited to teach or take part in discussions will include exhibition curators, museologists, conservators, artists.

The objective of the course, namely for students to come in direct contact with art, will be pursued in different places and different formats – meetings, discussions, occasionally lectures (but not at the university). On principle, the classes will involve people from outside the university staff (as teachers or discussion participants) – curators of the exhibitions visited, museologists presenting the principles of exposition, people who run galleries, teachers from the Academy of Fine Arts, artists, art critics etc. The syllabus is flexible, depending largely on current exhibitions, artistic and cultural events as well as the interests and needs of the participants.

Since the essence and aim of this course is direct contact with visual arts, no preparatory literature is required. In some cases, supplementary reading for a given class may be provided.

1. Knowledge on the nature and mechanisms of contemporary artistic life (K-W02).

2. Skills needed to analyse and interpret a work of art experienced through direct contact (K-U02)

3. Competence as regards the operation of contemporary institutions of culture – galleries, museums, exhibition institutions (K-K01)(K-K08)

Credits will be based on a short written paper in the form of an essay, a review of an exhibition or artistic event. Active participation in classes will also be considered.