The Courtauld announced today an exciting new MA in Art and Business, taught in
collaboration with King’s Business School, which aims to equip students with all the skills and
knowledge they need to succeed in today’s art market. The creation of the new MA in Art and
Business will further The Courtauld’s aim to be the world’s most dynamic centre for the study
and appreciation of art.
The MA draws on The Courtauld’s rich resources as a centre of learning about the visual arts,
on King’s excellence in business teaching, and on the unrivalled expertise of The Courtauld’s
worldwide network of alumni working in the art market. The students will have the chance to
pursue advanced study and research on Art and Business from both a contemporary and an
historical perspective, and with the benefit of an extraordinary range of experts.
Many of The Courtauld’s alumni hold leading positions in the commercial art world, including
Oliver Barker, Executive Vice President and Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe; Mary Rozell,
Global Head of Art Collections at UBS; Jessica Beck, Director of Gagosian Beverly Hills;
Paula Sankoff, Sales Director at Victoria Miro, and many more.
As well as being taught by The Courtauld’s specialist faculty and by colleagues at King’s
Business School, students will engage regularly with some of the most dynamic and influential
figures of today’s art world, including gallerists, auction house directors, art lawyers, art fair
organisers, art advisors, curators, artists and critics.
Two new members of The Courtauld faculty have been appointed to oversee the development
and teaching of the course. Dr Thomas Stammers has joined as Reader in Art and Cultural
History. He was formerly Associate Professor in Modern European Cultural History at the
University of Durham. He has published widely on topics related to collecting, museums,
heritage politics and the art market. His monograph The Purchase of the Past: Collecting
Cultures in Post-Revolutionary Paris (Cambridge, 2020) won the 2020 Gladstone Prize from
the Royal Historical Society for the best first book on non-British history. He will be joined by
Stephanie Dieckvoss as Senior Lecturer in Art History, who formerly directed the Art
Business programme at the Kingston School of Art. She has over fifteen years’ worth of
experience in senior roles in the commercial art world and in art fairs and is the London art
market correspondent for the German newspaper Handelsblatt.
Professor Mark Hallett, Märit Rausing Director of The Courtauld, said: “Our new MA in
Art and Business is a thrilling development for The Courtauld, and I look forward to seeing it
shape the trajectories of successive generations of art market leaders. The students on this
programme will have a wonderful opportunity to learn not only from our own world-renowned
community of art historians, but also from our partners at King’s Business School and from
our extraordinary, high-achieving alumni. The programme is designed to be both intellectually
stretching and extremely practical, and to give students a unique skill-set that will enable them
to thrive in a wide range of roles in today’s art world. We can’t wait for it to begin.”
Professor Dirk vom Lehn, Professor of Organisation & Practice at King’s Business
School, said: “King’s Business School is thrilled to contribute its expertise to the new MA in
Art and Business at The Courtauld. KBS academics will prepare students for the world of
business and enhance their skills and competencies in management. Through practical
activities students will learn how to develop business plans and how to convince managers
of art businesses of the feasibility of their ideas. We are looking forward to starting to
collaborate with The Courtauld on this exciting new programme and to welcoming the first
cohort in 2025.”
There will be 24 student places available in the first year with the first students joining for the
academic year 2025/26. Applications will be accepted from mid-October 2024.
The new course coincides with the launch of The Courtauld’s reimagined MA Curating course,
which broadens its scope to cover a variety of curatorial contexts, including and beyond the
Art Museum. These two courses emphasise The Courtauld’s ongoing focus on building career
paths for their alumni community in the not-for-profit and commercial art world.
Press Enquiries:
Bolton & Quinn
Erica Bolton | erica@boltonquinn.com | +44 (0)20 7221 5000
Susie Gault | susie@boltonquinn.com | +44 (0)20 7221 5000
Notes to Editors:
About The Courtauld
The Courtauld was founded by Samuel Courtauld to promote art education to the broader public, and to provide university-level teaching in the history of art, for the first time in the UK. Today, nearly a century later, our mission remains that of advancing the understanding of the visual arts across the world, through pioneering research, innovative teaching and inspiring exhibitions, and through the stewardship of our internationally renowned collection.
An independent college that is part of the University of London, The Courtauld is home to the largest community of art historians and conservators in the UK. More than 40 faculty teach and carry out research on subjects ranging from early medieval manuscripts to contemporary digital art, with an increasingly global focus extending across the arts of Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the African diaspora.
The Courtauld also houses a world-famous gallery, which ranges from the medieval period to the 21st Century, with unrivalled works from the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist period, including iconic works by Manet, Cézanne, Degas, Seurat and Gauguin. The collection extends into the 20th century with works by Modigliani, Matisse and Kandinsky. The gallery team delivers a distinctive programme of exhibitions that reach a wide audience.
The Courtauld’s academic goal is to be the world’s most dynamic centre for the study and appreciation of art, conservation and curating. We are currently ranked fourth for Art History in the QS World Rankings and have a stellar reputation in research. The Courtauld is a training ground for those wanting to pursue a career in the creative industries, a sector that now contributes £109 billion a year to the UK economy alone in 2021 (DCMS 2022). We have educated an exceptionally high number of public museum directors; other alumni are founders of commercial galleries; influential curators; leaders in international auction houses; respected art critics; art historians at top universities; esteemed lawyers; and conservators who work at heritage sites throughout the world. They regularly break new ground and are forging change across the world in the public and commercial sector. We have 9,000 alumni in 83 countries with over 80% contributing to the growth of the global creative industries. Last year, The Courtauld began a 10-year strategic partnership with King’s College, London and we are already developing joint degrees and research projects.
The Courtauld’s home is the historically significant Somerset House, designed by the leading British architect Sir William Chambers in 1776. We are currently undergoing a major, £100m+ renovation, which has already led to the prize-winning transformation of the gallery. The second stage of this project will see the East Wing being turned into a spectacular series of teaching spaces, which will reopen in 2027. The transformation of the Courtauld’s premises will create facilities befitting our ambitions to become the world’s leading centre for the study of art, along with programmatic changes such as our new MA in Art and Business, that will help us to raise our global profile.