Arts and Society

Overview

The Arts and Society  programme at Utrecht University  is designed to meet the urgent need for arts professionals who possess rigorous theoretical and research skills coupled with practical abilities and an acute awareness of the current state of the sector at the local and global levels. 

As a student in this programme you will explore, for example, the dynamics and dilemmas within existing mainstream culture and its relationship with a growing number of “alternative” cultural practices, new models of creative production and industry, and the ever-increasing role of the arts in social justice.

Our Master’s programme is unique in many ways:

• You will benefit from interdisciplinary programme content that places a special emphasis on grassroots and participatory arts in social contexts.

• The Department of Media and Culture Studies, our programme's home, is a community of world class scholars whose teaching and research complement Arts and Society.

• ​You will be trained in highly innovative social research skills that combine methodological rigor, creative expression and critical engagement with the arts practices.

• You will learn from faculty with international expertise and benefit from a curriculum with a global orientation.

• Through our organisational partnerships in Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, North America, and Latin America, you will get a chance to meet and interact with arts professionals working in a wide variety of contexts.

• You will have a broad range of opportunities for student exchange and joint research through our numerous academic partnerships across the globe.

Careers

This programme focuses on transitional processes in existing institutions of the current cultural sector that are looking for new audiences and social relevance. 

It also focuses on emerging cultural practices in peripheral contexts (both urban and rural), and in public space, healthcare, the justice system (prisons), refugee environments, developing countries, and peace and reconciliation processes.

Obvious themes in these areas are the tensions between traditional and contemporary cultures (and the diversity within each of these), active and radical citizenship, and the centrality of human rights, i.e., the fundamental right to express oneself on one’s own terms.

A central question in all this is how participation in the arts relates to participation in society. It is an issue that all existing and newly emerging cultural organisations and artists cannot afford to ignore. Our students will prepare themselves for this and for all related challenges.

Possible Prospects 

The Master's programme in Arts and Society prepares arts professionals for a range of careers:

• Ministries of Culture

• Urban planning, design and strategy

• Design thinking and creative strategy and research

• Creative management, producer

• Arts collectives and foundations

• Grant-making foundations

• Arts-focused public sector enterprise and non-profit organisations

• Arts and entertainment companies

• Festival/event conceptualization and planning

• Education, community outreach or audience development for mainstream arts institutions such as museums, galleries, theatres and concert halls.

• Curating and programming internationally and cross-culturally

• Arts-based community organizing and advocacy

• Arts and cultural consulting and policy advising

• Arts and culture research, writing and criticism

Accreditation

Accredited by the NVAO - Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders.