Courses
AM 511 — Gallery Management and Operations
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Examines principles of art administration. Considers commercial art establishments: their facilities, design, exhibition and storage requirements, staffing, taste and price levels. Site visits to galleries and auction houses.
AM 512 — The Business of Art
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Addresses collection management, business practices, and ethics in the administration of commercial art establishments. Examines procedures for acquisition, registration, inventory, exhibition, and applications of computer technology in gallery management.
AM 521 — History of Art: 1870 to 1945
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Focuses on significant artists and movements in Europe from Realism through Surrealism. Weekly reading assignments provide the topic of discussion for each slide-illustrated class. Students come to class prepared to discuss the week's reading, and will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, as well as a term paper on an art-market-related subject.
AM 522 — History of Art: 1945 to 1990
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Provides a comprehensive survey of the art and culture of postwar Europe and America. Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Performance Art, Earth Art, and Postmodern strategies of representation are explored using major critical and theoretical models. The impact of contemporary market practice is also considered. Where possible, museum, gallery and studio visits are integrated into the course.
AM 531 — Marketing for Art Organizations
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Introduces students to the basic principles of integrated marketing communications as they apply both to non-profit institutions, such as museums, and for-profit retail art establishments. Surveys sales techniques, advertising, merchandising, publicity, social media, special events, and media relations as they apply to the art world. Students organize and develop a marketing plan.
AM 533 — Core Business Practices
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course provides a foundation of core business practices as applied in the small business area. Students are introduced to all functional areas of business, including finance, legal, managerial, operations, and business strategy. Methods of business operations, types of ownership, and how they all work together to establish a sustainable venture are covered.
AM 541 — Writing About Art
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
A practicum in art writing in which students read a variety of art texts and apply the lessons learned from them to their own writing. Emphasis is placed early in the semester on developing observational skills, and then using them to write about art. The strategies, methodologies and critical models employed by historical and contemporary art writers are investigated. Students will analyze the positions taken in different forms of art writing -- from the promotional catalogue essayist or auction-house writer to the critical stance of the reviewer -- and develop their own writing skills in a series of exercises, which will be turned in as a final portfolio at the end of the semester.
AM 571 — Computer Technology for the Art Market
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Provides an overview of the constantly expanding role of the computer as an arts management tool, including gallery management, inventory and collections management, publishing, accounting, information retrieval, and internet marketing and sales, through a combination of lectures and hands-on laboratories. Students are expected to already have achieved basic competence in word and data processing, computer graphics, and internet access.
AM 613 — Valuation and Appraisal
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Considers appraisals, market values, authentication, forgeries, antiquities, collectibles, and import and export of artistic and cultural objects. Includes lectures by visiting specialists.
AM 623 — Public, Non-Profit and Art Services Sectors
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Explores the different elements of the art market with particular emphasis on how they are connected to the New York art world and the larger context of the global art market. Through class discussions and presentations by arts professionals including administrators, curators, dealers, critics, consultants, and collectors, students expand and deepen their understanding of the roles that each participant plays, and analyze the complex interconnectedness of the different components of the art world.
AM 633 — Art, Law, and Professional Ethics
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Considers the legal and ethical questions particular to art galleries, auction houses, museums, collectors, and artists. Topics covered include taxes, title, commissions, copyright, contracts, estates, reproductions, forgery, artists' rights, and the legal status of the art object.
AM 641 — Art Now: Communicating Current Trends in Art
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This class examines up-to-the-minute ideas, trends, and movements in art. Special attention will be paid to the work of the last twenty years in order to equip students with the theoretical concepts and the language necessary to develop meaning in new art. Oral and written assignments will help students learn to quickly assess and evaluate art, and the strategies employed in its exhibition, as well as, to eloquently express their critical understanding.
AM 653 — Practicum: Public Program
3 credits; 1 lecture and 4 lab hours
The first in a two-semester sequence of courses. In the first part of this course, offered in the Fall semester, students organize and execute a public panel discussion on a topic of current interest to the art market. In the second part of the course, they undertake the preliminary planning for a group exhibition to be mounted in the Spring.
AM 654 — Practicum: Exhibition
3 credits; 1 lecture and 4 lab hours
The second in a two-semester sequence of courses. In this course, offered in the Spring semester, students organize and install a group exhibition at an off-campus venue. They create and produce an announcement, advertising, press release, catalog, and website.
Prerequisite(s): AM 653.
AM 691 — Internship
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Supervised field experiences in galleries, archives, auction houses, art foundations, and museum management departments. Completed individually for a minimum of 135 hours during any given semester. In the fourth semester, students will take an evaluation and assessment workshop course that includes oral and written presentations of their internship experience.
AM 692 — Independent Study in Art Market
1-3 credit; 1 lecture hour
Under the guidance of a faculty member, the student undertakes advanced work in a particular subject, pursues an individual project, or combines both of these activities. Proposals for independent study must adhere to school guidelines.
AM 701 — Qualifying Paper
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
With the approval of faculty advisors, students develop individual topics and research and write s qualifying paper, following school guidelines.
AM 702 — Maintenance of Matriculation per Term
0 credits; 0 lecture hours
Students must maintain matriculation after completion of their coursework until the qualifying paper has been approved.