Final Year, Component 02

Get valuable real-life experience of the unique holdings at Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA) and contribute to their dissemination at the University. Learn about artworks in ESCALA and how they can be activated in object-based learning sessions with diverse publics.

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is known as both the most important sculptor of the nineteenth century and the first modern sculptor. This module will examine his work in detail in order not only to gain an understanding of the oeuvre of this prolific artist but also to consider some of the general issues that pervade the study of sculpture. Even though Rodin is one of the most well-known artists in the world today, we will de-familiarise his work in order to see what lessons it might teach us about the history of art.

Want to do more than hang pretty pictures on a pleasantly coloured wall? Then take this module to learn how curators and designers from the 1920s onward have turned exhibition spaces into site of social and political critique -- a practice now often subsumed under the concept of ‘critical curating’. Organised chronologically, the module gives you the chance to hone your understanding of the complex relationship between critique and curating, generally by situating major exhibitions and paradigmatic curatorial concept in relation to key texts of critical theory.

This module will explore how conflicts over 'heritage' rights are, today more than ever, influencing critical debates over the definition of world, national, and local heritage, as well as universal, community, and individual rights. It will also examine the impact that tensions between communities and universal versus local values have on the management of heritage, and how these tensions might be resolved to allow sustainable growth. We will ask: What is heritage? Who defines it? Who should control its management and preservation? How is the notion of 'heritage' used to unite or otherwise divide communities? What are some of the consequences of the ways different groups appropriate and utilise heritage? Is there a universal right to free access, expression, and preservation of heritage, and if so, how is it expressed? What are the impacts of globalisation on heritage issues? This module has been designed to enable students to integrate their subject knowledge with an understanding of sustainable development, acquiring the skills and competencies essential for addressing the urgent sustainability challenges of the 21st century.