MA Program in the History of Decorative Arts and Design

The next generation of decorative arts and design historians, curators, scholars, and administrators will receive their education from this prestigious two-year program, which confers a Master of Arts in the History of Decorative Arts and Design. Offered by Parsons The New School for Design jointly with Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the degree leads graduates to careers at museums, historic houses, galleries, appraisal firms, magazines and publishing, auction houses and universities. The curriculum offers courses in the media of ceramics, costume, furniture, glass, graphic design, metalwork, textiles, and works on paper. These courses go beyond connoisseurship to address a wide range of issues in the decorative arts and design including social, economic, and cultural history, critical theory, style, and techniques.

The program focuses on the history of European and American decorative arts and design from the Renaissance to the present. The unique character of the program is defined by its location within the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historical and contemporary design. Located in the landmark Andrew Carnegie Mansion on Museum Mile, it has encyclopedic collections of European and American furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, architectural and ornamental drawings and prints, textiles, wall coverings, and graphic and industrial design. In addition, the Museum boasts the premier design library in the United States, with a collection of 55,000+ books and periodicals related to the history of design, as well as extensive holdings of trade catalogs and archives of African-American, Latino-Hispanic, and American designers. The courses emphasize object-based teaching, utilizing museum collections. Students have the opportunity to work in the Cooper-Hewitt’s four curatorial departments: Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design; Product Design and Decorative Arts; Textiles; and Walloveringshistoryofdecarts@si.edu.