Please contact studyabroad@sothebysinstitute.com to receive information about our Summer 2025 programs and other exciting opportunities at Sotheby’s Institute of Art-London.
Since 1969, Sotheby’s Institute of Art has offered postgraduate programs that combine cutting-edge teaching with business acumen and insider access to the art world. Study Abroad extends that opportunity to undergraduate students worldwide, and provides opportunities for students who wish to explore the art world at the heart of a global cultural capital, London.
Study Abroad students will gain a deep understanding of the art world, its museums and collections, dealers and auction houses, public and commercial galleries. Combining a global perspective on contemporary visual culture with matchless access to industry experiences, students will be equipped with the intellectual and professional skills that will benefit them both in their future employment and complement their studies at their home institution.
The course descriptions below offer an overview of our current catalog. Please note that not all courses may be available each term.
The Global Art Market This foundational course uncovers the art world ecosystem, introducing the key concepts, individuals, and business models that underpin the global art market and wider creative economy. Exclusive access to individuals and institutions within the art world is a crucial learning tool for this course. Includes field trips to Sotheby’s auction house.
Faculty: Ed Leeson
Exploring Collections, Exploding Canons This course takes a critical look at the Western tradition of art history through a range of London and UK art collections, and engages with some of the key contemporary cultural debates around the politics of collecting and display. This includes decolonisation, gender, and the future of monuments in the museums and cultural heritage sector. Includes fields trip to The British Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and The National Gallery, London.
Faculty: Catherine McCormack
Digital Futures in Contemporary Art This course introduces the dynamic discourse at the intersection of art and technology. It examines the fast-evolving digital world and how it is reshaping art practice, the international art market, and the curatorial field. Includes field trips to contemporary art galleries and dealers and a digital studio.
Faculty: Jamie Sutcliffe
Hogarth to Himid: Histories of British Art This course provides a survey of British art spanning from the seventeenth century to the present day, beginning with the of the establishment of a British school of painting in the early eighteenth century amid the backdrop of empire and the formation of the Royal Academy in 1768, before focusing on modern and contemporary artistic practice.
Faculty: Catherine McCormack
Contemporary Art and Global Feminisms Starting with Linda Nochlin’s 1971 essay ‘Why have there been no great women artists?’, this course will consider the key global currents of fifty years of feminist art around a number of themes. These include feminist art about the body and sexuality, women’s domestic labour, feminist approaches to identity, motherhood and childcare, violence against women, feminism, and the art historical canon.
Faculty: Catherine McCormack
The Curator Academy With a project-oriented focus, this unit will equip students with the contextual knowledge and practical skills to plan, develop, and deliver a curatorial project. Topics will include the curator as auteur, facilitator, mediator and project manager as well as contemporary curatorial approaches and research methodology.
Faculty: Amy Mechowski
Creative Business Accelerator In this unit, students will learn to develop and present a business plan for a commercial or social enterprise within the creative economy. Students will gain a range of sought-after hard and soft skills, across five key areas: market analysis, product or service design, branding, assessing resources, and an in-depth financial forecasting.
Faculty: Ed Leeson
While the Study Abroad program allows students to gain undergraduate course credits, Gap Semester is offered as 6-week and 12-week terms, and ideal for those aged 18-21 to broaden their perspectives, meet new people, and develop an intimate understanding of the art world. For further information, download the brochure to explore collegiate options.
Modules on London’s museum and gallery collections, the politics of display, inclusion and exclusion in the art world and market, and the impact of digital technologies on contemporary art.
Professional development gained through a choice of the Curator Academy or Creative Business Accelerator modules.
An international experience at the heart of an historic and cosmopolitan global city.
Study trips outside of London to further explore British museums and collections.
A network of industry experts, academics, and peers.
A program validated by the University of Manchester, a prestigious Russell Group university.
Residential options and a full program of extra-curricular student life activities.
Program Leader
Catherine is an art historian, author and independent curator and critic whose work often focuses on feminism and visual culture and critical approaches to art and art history.
Read MoreCourse Leader, London
Ed Leeson is a UK based gallerist and curator. He has organised exhibitions internationally in both commercial and institutional spaces. Over the last decade he has been a staff lecturer at TATE and a course leader at Sotheby’s Institute of Art where he lectures on contemporary art, its markets, and wider cultural studies. His MA thesis focussed on identity capture in museum cyberspace, and his current PhD research is on the aesthetics of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He is the Director of 243 Luz.
Read MoreCourse Leader, London
Jamie Sutcliffe is a writer, curator, and co-director of Strange Attractor Press. His work explores artistic encounters with science fictive fabulation, the politics of video games, animation and its entanglements with developments in the life sciences, and the persistence of myth in digital contexts.
Read MoreCourse Leader: Curating., and Course Leader: Modern and Contemporary Art
Originally from Chicago, Amy holds a PhD in the History of Art from University College London on the construction of the self in fin-de-siècle photography. Since 2007 she has been an Assistant Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass Department, she has undertaken a very wide range of curatorial activities, working on major exhibition projects, with special responsibility for the sculpture collection and expertise on wax objects.
Read MoreWe are partnering with a select number of universities for this Study Abroad program. If you are interested in sending students to Sotheby’s Institute of Art or learning more about the curriculum and student life, please contact studyabroad@sothebysinstitute.com.
Contact your home institution’s study abroad office to discuss how credits will apply to your transcript, or contact us to discuss your options studyabroad@sothebysinstitute.com.
All applicants must be at least 18 years old by beginning of the program and currently enrolled in an undergraduate university program with a minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA (or equivalent). For non-native English speakers, a minimum IELTS score of 6.0 or TOEFL score of 78 IBT is required.
The Study Abroad program is suitable for students studying a wide range of major subjects across, humanities, arts, and business.
The Humanities: History of Art, Visual Cultures, History, Media, Communications and Cultural Studies
Creative Industries: Fine Art, Design, Fashion and Luxury, Photography, Textiles
Business: Creative Economy, Entrepreneurial and allied fields, Marketing
Summer 2024: July 2 – July 27, 2024*
Please note that this program has a condensed and intensive format.
*Please note: your final assignment can be submitted up to a week after your in-person class finishes (Friday, August 2). This assignment is uploaded virtually via your on-line learning platform, Canvas, so you do not need to be in London to successfully submit this assignment, although you must have a strong and secure internet connection. Your faculty and program team will provide further information regarding all submission deadlines and requirements during your SIA academic orientation.
Fall 2024: September 3 – December 15, 2024
Spring 2025: January 21 – May 4, 2025
Fall 2025: September 2 – December 12, 2025
Spring 2026: January 20 – May 3, 2026
Live and Learn in the city where tradition meets avant-garde.
Our London Institute is situated in Bedford Square with the British Museum in the neighboring square. Sotheby’s auction house, the National Gallery, and the Royal Academy of Arts are a short walk away. The Institute is also close to Mayfair, the traditional center of the London art market where many dealers and galleries are located.
We are happy to welcome visitors to Sotheby’s Institute of Art. If you would like to book a tour or meet with a member of our team, please contact studyabroad@sia.edu.
More information about our summer 2025 Study Abroad term, including dates, tuition, application requirements and more, is anticipated to become available in November. If you would like to be one of the first to hear about program updates for summer 2025 Study Abroad programs, please reach out to our admissions team at studyabroad@sia.edu to express your interest.
Please note: Summer 2025 Study Abroad participants must be 18 on or by the program start date in order to be considered for the program. Students who do not meet this requirement are encouraged to consider our Pre-College summer program and contact precollege@sia.edu for more information.