Online Learning
Learn the Business of Art from Anywhere in the World Sotheby’s Institute of Art—Online offers courses that reveal the complex infrastructure of the art world and today’s global art market. Students learn the core principles of business, art law, art history, contemporary art and other key subjects while studying what is happening in the market. Students also gain an understanding of the intricate art world network of galleries, auction houses, dealers, artists, non-profits and more. This comprehensive approach is what makes Sotheby’s Institute of Art—Online a successful launch pad for professionals and career-changers who are eager to enter a profession at the centre of the booming international art world.
About Sotheby’s Institute of Art Since 1969, Sotheby’s Institute of Art has pioneered the education of arts professionals whose careers have placed them at the centre of the international art world. Originally conceived as a program of connoisseurship by Sotheby’s Auction House, today the Institute has campuses in London and New York, 6,000 alumni worldwide, and is one of the largest and most prestigious degree-granting institutions of its kind. Over the last decade Sotheby’s Institute has become an independent educational organization, greatly expanding its pedagogical spectrum while retaining its privileged access and association with the Auction House. Last year nearly 300 Master’s students, taught by 50 full-time and adjunct faculty members in London and New York, graduated from Sotheby’s Institute. In addition to its full-time Master’s Degree programmes the Institute offers a variety of study options including Continuing Education classes, Summer and Semester Study courses, and Online Courses
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John Singer Sargent, The Misses Vickers , 1884
A Distinctly Different Way to Learn about the Art World Sotheby’s Institute of Art—Online offers intensive, custom-curated courses through a clean, simple e-learning interface specifically designed for our students. Taught by Sotheby’s Institute faculty and leading experts in the field, online courses provide an introduction to and a deeper understanding of key art world subjects as well as the opportunity to interact with students from around the world in a truly global learning community.
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Campana Brother , Sonia Diniz chair, circa 2003, detail . Š Sotheby ’s
Online Courses
Online Courses
Introduction to Contemporary Art In the past fifty years contemporary art has grown to be one of the most exciting and crowded fields in the international art world. This course offers an introductory guide to contemporary art, surveying all of the trends and movements that have shaped the period and tracing how the art market has kept pace. Students will review the emergence in the galleries of film and video, and assess the health of venerable practices like painting and drawing. The course will examine the work of contemporary art’s leading lights—Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Elizabeth Peyton, among others—and those just emerging onto the scene.
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Online Courses
Understanding Trends in the Art Market It is a common misconception that the art market is a lottery in which prices behave in an arbitrary and unpredictable manner. This course develops the economic principles and basic statistical tools that enable us to analyze the art market and understand underlying movements and trends in art market prices. The economic principles introduced will be applied to the art market in order to assess the problem of valuing an artwork. A background in economics or statistics is not required.
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Buddhist lion, K angxi period, 18th century
Online Courses
Art as an Alternative Investment Among seasoned investors, fine art is generally acknowledged to possess features that make it a particularly attractive alternative asset class.By looking at performance statistics and reviewing a range of academic and empirical research on the subject, this course will examine the characteristics of fine art that allow it to be categorized in this manner. It will consider appropriate investment strategies involving fine art, and the analytic tools that enable us to measure the performance of art investment portfolios compared to conventional investments. This course will also explore the emergence and experience of institutional and other art investment funds in recent years, including a case study based on the first institutional investor in fine art—the British Rail Pension Fund. A background in finance is not required.
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Johannes Vermeer , Girl with a Pearl Earring , circa 1665
Online Courses
Introduction to Art History: The Movements That Mattered Instead of approaching art history as a flurry of dates and names to remember, this course dives deeply into single moments and uses key objects to understand the progression of styles in Western art. Beginning with the pyramids of ancient Egypt in 3,000 BCE and ending with Picasso’s Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon from 1907, we trace the evolution of art’s major periods and styles by a close consideration of treasured objects and monuments. Participants will emerge with a greater awareness of the arc of Western art, as well as an in-depth understanding of some of humanity’s greatest works.
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Online Courses
Understanding International Law in Art Business Art business operates in a global environment. As the law is an essential tool for the successful conduct of the market, this course examines ways in which art businesses are legally constituted worldwide. Key study topics include international art business contracts and how to form and manage them; international auction houses and salerooms and consumer protection legislation; international movement of artworks and the repatriation of those stolen or plundered; and intellectual property laws relating to art and artists, art business and its management. The course also addresses issues related to art as a creative endeavour, art as an article of commerce, and art as a significant cultural artifact. The course aims to provide students with a sound understanding and good working knowledge of the legal and business frameworks within which art business operates worldwide. A legal background is not required.
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Online Courses
Introduction to Modern Art What makes modern art modern, and why does so much artwork of the 20th century shock and confound? This course probes many of the questions surrounding this fertile period while surveying a century of art, architecture, and design, from the emergence of Edouard Manet and the Impressionists through the rise of Jackson Pollock and the Abstract Expressionists. Students will also explore Fauvism, Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism, and trace the careers of greats such as Picasso, Matisse, and Le Corbusier, whose creativity transcended the boundaries of artistic movements.
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Balloon Dog (Blue), Jeff Koons, 1994-2000. High chromium stainless steel with tr ansparent color coating . (121 x 143 x 45 inches). The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica , Install ation at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Online Courses
Art of the Western World: Renaissance to Modern From Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel to the advent of Modernism at the start of the 20th century, this course provides the framework for the major developments in painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the 15th through 20th centuries. In just six weeks, beginning with the Renaissance in Italy and the North and culminating with the New York City’s famous Armory Show of 1913 you’ll see masterpieces of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical periods as well as gain an understanding of the birth of Modern and contemporary art. More than a list of dates and objects, this class uses specific examples to illuminate the aesthetic and social concerns of each period and traces the development of artistic achievement as Western Civilization moved from a medieval culture into the modern world.
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Guo Buchuan, Beijing Jingshan Park , 1938, oil on board
Faculty
Distinguished Faculty and Art World Scholars Morgan Falconer is a faculty member in the Contemporary Art programme at the New York Institute and is a critic, journalist and art historian. Educated at the University of Leeds, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, he completed a Ph.D. on American modernist culture at University College London. Since then he has written about contemporary art for publications ranging from The Times (London) to Frieze and Art in America. K atie Hill has fifteen years of experience in the field of contemporary Chinese art. She graduated with a degree in Chinese language and literature from the University of Edinburgh and gained a PhD in art history from the University of Sussex specialising in contemporary Chinese art. Since then, she has lectured extensively on the subject and worked closely with a number of contemporary artists from China as a writer and curator. Jeremy Eckstein is a statistician by training. He started his working life as a fund manager. In 1979, he joined Sotheby’s Auction House as Head of Research, where he was responsible for developing a range of statistical, economic and financial tools for use by investors and other art market professionals with particular responsibility for monitoring the performance of the British Railways Pension Fund’s fine art investment portfolio. He was appointed Deputy Director in 1987, with overall responsibility for international research.
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Jonathan Cl ancy is Programme Director of American Fine and Decorative Arts at the New York Institute and is an author, educator, and curator. His publications include Beauty in Common Things: American Arts and Crafts Pottery from the Two Red Roses Collection (coauthor, 2008), Frans Wildenhain: Creative and Commercial American Ceramics at MidCentury (contributing author, 2012), Art and Authenticity (contributing author, 2012). His research has appeared in Modern Craft, Journal of Design History, the Smithsonian’s American Art Journal, and numerous other journals. Henry Lydiate has specialised in international art business law for over 35 years, since being called to the English Bar in 1974. He has written a regular column for Art Monthly since 1976, and his collected articles are published as the Artlaw Archive by Artquest. He is founding partner of The Henry Lydiate Partnership, the creative arts business consultancy. He has taught postgraduate international business and legal courses for Southwestern University Law School Los Angeles and the University of the Arts London where he is Visiting Professor in Artlaw. He is a member of the Sotheby’s Institute of Art—London consultant faculty.
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About Online Learning
About the E-Learning Environment Participating in an online course is intellectually challenging and personally rewarding. Courses are delivered through the Institute’s exclusive Learning Management System (LMS), a clean, simple interface which contains all course resources and through which all course interaction occurs. A variety of multimedia resources such as videos, image galleries, readings and web links are utilized as the starting point for written discussions between students and instructors. Instructors provide a syllabus with course objectives and present academically structured material on a weekly basis, along with assignments where applicable. The course can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and you do not have to be online at the same time as your peers or instructor. The learning experience emerges from collaborative discussions where students and instructors post comments, questions and observations just as in a traditional classroom. Some courses may require group projects and although there is no live or face-to-face component to the class, instant chat provides an extra dimension to the interaction. Class size is kept to a maximum of 20-25 students.
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Canada
United States
Mexico
Guatemala
Colombia Ecuador
Global Learning Community
Brazil
Students at Sotheby’s Institute of Art—Online have come Argentina
from 52 different countries and a variety of backgrounds including art professionals, lawyers, art dealers, designers, artists, educators, non-profit executives, financial analysts, and many others who are simply passionate about art.
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Sweden Russia
Finland Norway United Kingdom Denmark
Latvia
Lithuania Netherlands Germany Ireland Luxembourg Czech Rep. Belgium Switzerland
Ukraine Slovakia Austria Hungary
France Portugal
Spain
Italy
Greece
Turkey Cyprus
Egypt
China
S. Korea
Japan
Lebanon Qatar Bahrain
Hong Kong
Taiwan
India
U.A.E.
Vietnam
Philippines
Malaysia
Singapore
Australia
New Zealand
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Open Online Environment Online students come from all over the world and from all walks of life but have one thing in common—a passion for learning about art and the art world. Our online classrooms are friendly, inviting places where students can feel free to express their thoughts and ideas and ask questions. Online Orientation A week prior to the course start date, students are given access to a Pre-Course Workshop designed to educate students on the use and functionality of our online Learning Management System. It is strongly recommended that all students participate. Creating a Schedule While students can access their course from their computer anywhere at any time, it is best for students to create a schedule for themselves that works, and to stick to it. New material is released weekly and students will have a week to complete any assignments and participate in class discussion. Communication Online students should be confident with both reading and writing in English, since all class discussion takes place in a written forum. Frequent, thoughtful interaction between students and instructors makes for an effective and enjoyable experience for all involved.
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Technical Requirements
Technical Requirements Online courses require the following hardware and software: • Macintosh (OSX) or Windows PC (XP or better) • Speakers or headphones • A web browser. Sotheby’s Institute of Art’s e-learning interface supports the following browsers: Firefox (version 3.6 or later) Google Chrome (16.0) Safari (version 5.0 or later) Internet Explorer (version 6.0 or later) • Adobe Acrobat Reader • Apple QuickTime • Adobe Flash Player
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Students will need to log in with the web address, username and password that will be provided a week before the course begins. Students are responsible for obtaining and maintaining Internet connectivity and appropriate hardware and software. It is extremely important that students take time to check and update their computer access before the class starts as some course materials will be inaccessible without the correct technology. While course content may be viewed on an iPad or mobile device, students will need access to a traditional computer to participate in the class.
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Join Us and Explore the Art World Registration To register for an online course, go to the Sotheby’s Institute of Art—Online website and click on “Register Now” for the course(s) of your choice. You will be guided through the simple enrollment process, and upon completion you will receive a confirmation email. Requirements Courses are open to the public for those at least 18 years of age who hold a high school diploma or the equivalent. Students are not required to supply a language certificate but must be aware that all courses are conducted in English and a good working knowledge of the language is recommended. For writing classes, students will be expected to be proficient in written English. Contact For questions please contact Online at 212.517.3929 or online@sothebysinstitute.com. Connect with Sotheby’s Institute of Art on Facebook.
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Lond on 30 Bedford Square London, WC1B 3EE, UK T +44 (0)20 7462 3232 F +44 (0)20 7580 8160 NEw York 570 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10022, USA T +1 212 517 3929 F +1 212 517 6568 admissions@sothebysinstitute.com www.sothebysinstitute.com