Arts and Culture Studies focuses on art in its various forms: visual arts, literature, music, theatre, film and architecture, as well as digital media and popular culture. After an introduction to long-term developments in western art history, we zoom in on the art worlds of Europe and the Americas in the past hundred years or so. Our approach is interdisciplinary, comparative and multi-medial: you will not only analyse art forms in and by themselves, but will also learn to compare and contrast them. Students are invited to explore art and culture from a number of theoretical, historical, political and social perspectives, incorporating European and American views on culture. You will learn to discern differences between art forms, and between contemporary and historical valuations of art, as well as how to apply theoretical concepts to analyse cultural phenomena. During the programme you're encouraged to develop your own well-founded vision on art and (popular) culture.
