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CULP40240

Academic Year 2025/2026

Cultural Policy 3 Arts Lives (CULP40240)

Subject:
Cultural Policy
College:
Arts & Humanities
School:
Art History & Cultural Policy
Level:
4 (Masters)
Credits:
5
Module Coordinator:
Dr Annette Clancy
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

Arts lives is a five week series of seminars preparing students for entry into the workplace; starting with an eight-week internship and progressing towards employment in the arts and cultural sector. It supports the development of professional practice while enabling students to apply the research and theoretical learning from their studies to real-world contexts. The module features a series of guest speakers, providing diverse insights and practical advice. It integrates key themes of the MA in Cultural Policy and Arts Management, including job decoding and CV preparation; working in multicultural and multidisciplinary contexts; personal wellbeing; making the most of internships, and collective labour. It is designed to support students pursuing careers as freelancers, employees, or those establishing their own businesses.


About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

• Develop strategies to maximise the learning potential of internships, including reflecting on and articulating the relationship between academic and workplace learning.
• Recognise personal strengths and areas for improvement, and create actionable plans to address professional development needs.
• Engage critically with guest speakers' insights to enhance understanding of diverse roles and pathways in the arts and cultural industries.
• Reflect on how course-based learning informs work-based experiences and vice versa, fostering a reflective and adaptive approach to professional growth
• Identify key aspects of labour and employment practices within the arts and cultural sector, with a focus on navigating both freelance and employed work.

Indicative Module Content:

Topics covered in this module will include

•Job decoding & Preparing your CV. This session introduces the skills of job decoding and CV development, helping MA students approach job applications with clarity and focus.
Personal wellbeing. This session is designed to bring a combination of practical skills and insights to support learners to work in fast-paced, charging arts and creative sectors.
•Preparing for Internships–perspectives from mentors and graduates from the programme. Employers and alums from the programme return to give their perspectives on getting the most from the internship module
•Working in multicultural and multidisciplinary contexts. This session explores how students plan and consider their engagement in an international work and creative space.
•Collective Labour: This session explores the challenges arts workers face with poor working conditions, inadequate policies, and coercive cultures while emphasising collective organisation and worker empowerment as tools for securing fairer and more dignified work environments

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

12
Specified Learning Activities

60
Autonomous Student Learning

28
Total

100

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
The module comprises encounters with people chosen for their exceptional or outstanding achievement in the arts and cultural fields. The sessions will take the form of an open dialogue with the speaker, conducted by lecturers on the programme. Students are invited to ask supplementary questions to illuminate or tease out some aspect of the speaker's presentation. The sessions are 2 hours in duration.

Generative AI may be used for certain purposes only under the guidance of your module coordinator and within academic integrity guidelines. This corresponds to amber on the traffic light system that has been adopted by UCD Arts & Humanities: https://www.ucd.ie/artshumanities/study/aifutures/trafficlightsystem/
More information will be supplied on Brightspace for each assignment.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Equivalents:
Cultural Policy 3 (Artform) (AH40120), Cultural Pol. 3 Arts Lives (AH40240)


 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Assignment(Including Essay): A Learning Journal–an individual, reflective assessment designed to capture your ongoing learning and development throughout the module. May be submitted in written or audio format Week 10 Graded No
100
 No

Carry forward of passed components
No
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Summer No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Each student will receive an individual, written assessment of the portfolio they have kept and submitted for assessment following the conclusion of the module.

Name Role
Dr Annette Clancy Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Victoria Durrer Lecturer / Co-Lecturer

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
Spring Field Trip Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23 Tues 10:00 - 11:50
Spring Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 24 Tues 10:00 - 15:50
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