Course summary

MA Fashion Curation engages with the study of international fashion exhibition-making and related museological practices, ranging from the detailed investigation of objects to the processes and apparatus of their display in cultural and commercial presentations. The course centres on investigation into the practices and theories of fashion exhibition-making, through critical engagement with historic and contemporary references, to reveal the diverse contexts that inform this aspect of fashion curation. To complement enquiry into fashion exhibition-making the MA focusses on examination of the cultural value and interpretation of objects through processes of research, archival discovery, practices of collecting and the classification of collections. Fashion Curation is a young and fast-developing discipline. Through contact with academics and industry professionals active in the field (including academics from the Centre for Fashion Curation, independent curators, private archives and commercial collectors, professionals from National and regional museums) students will keep abreast of the latest developments. The course is designed to allow flexibility of content so that contemporary topics (such as digital media, sustainability and the rise of brand-driven presentations) can be included in course content. Fusing curatorial activities of exhibiting and collecting the course also engages critically with the origination and development of exhibition concepts and the translation of these concepts into innovative exhibition proposals. The course will support and encourage students to develop their own curatorial idiom within this dynamic discipline.