"I've learned everything that I know about art from artists... I see myself as an advocate and an activist and a writer." —Lucy R. Lippard.

Curatorial Studies are concerned with the theory and practice of curating art and artefacts. Derived from the Latin “curare” which means “to take care of”, the discipline involves conceptualising, organising and articulating the way in which art is interpreted, displayed and communicated to an audience.

The key areas of study within this discipline are the histories of exhibition making, the evolution of contexts of display—the museum, the public space, print publishing and the web for example—, and the expanding role of the curator as a commissioner, writer, interpreter and keeper of artworks and art collections. The act of curating art, as object and concept, is interwoven with organising and envisioning frameworks of display, collecting, documenting, interpreting and archiving.

Curatorial Studies also involves the acquisition of hands-on skills in management, administration and fundraising. Hence, the critical and discursive research framework of this discipline spans from art history and aesthetics to business studies and mass communication. It entails the development of theoretical and critical frameworks for the presentation and interpretation of artworks and artistic practices, experimenting with their possibilities in relation to the contemporary contexts of communication and engagement.