Art and Art Professions

Study at NYU BERLIN

Berlin is a cosmopolitan city that holds a complex and crucial place in modern European history. Youthful, artistic, and cutting-edge, it is home to the most innovative contemporary art scene in Europe. You’ll have an unparalleled studio experience with the Steinhardt Studio Art Program at NYU Berlin

• Engage with Berlin-based artists through courses, gallery openings, and visits to artists’ studios.
• Explore Berlin’s many museums and study the city’s rich architectural legacy through art history courses.
• Take your studio classes in our newly renovated studio space at St. Agnes, a converted former church complex in the Kreuzberg district not far from student housing. This 1,446-square-foot teaching and working studio provides standard equipment and basic hand tools.
  • Work on photo and video projects at our creative stations.
  • Take advantage of our computer lab, which has 16 Macintosh computers installed with a variety of software and a printer pool housing two professional plotters and one printer/scanner workstation.

Berlin: Courses and Electives

Complete a Required Course

• The Visual Arts Praxis (ART-UE 900) course is offered during the Fall semester, allowing you to take a required course and stay on track with their BFA.
  • In Berlin, this class focuses on the question of Identity– how identity is constructed and how conditions of identity affect the art-making process of each individual student. Recent political events such as the rise of populism in the US and Europe, movements like “Black Lives Matter,” and the refugee crisis are discussed in conjunction with artistic activity like Wolfang Tillmans' Anti-Brexit Campaign and the painting of David Leggett. We use a variety of psychological, art theoretical, philosophical, political, and sociological texts to discuss the topic.

Electives

You may also take a variety of electives while in Berlin, including art and art history courses.

• Spotlight on the Interdisciplinary Projects elective: This studio course explores contemporary art production, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary practice. The class will give you a space of experimentation to develop individual artistic practices and research, process forms of mediating and framing artworks, and look critically at contemporary practice in Berlin from the position of the artist. You’ll engage with performance, installation, photography, video and writing assignments, group critiques, and visits to sites of production.
• Art and Ideas: The Art World Today – Berlin and Beyond
• Projects in Photography: Digital Imaging
• Ancient Art in Berlin: Discovering the Collections of Museum Island
• Shaping the Educational Landscape: Museum Island
• Place-Building-Time: The Architecture of Berlin

Student Life

Our on-site staff will provide support for you during your time abroad. We’ll help you connect with your host culture throughout your stay with orientation, trips, student clubs, and language exchanges. Housing is guaranteed to all students and will vary by location.

Further Opportunities

Our NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai campuses offer additional art courses to give you a global perspectve. We offer many core, liberal arts, and content elective courses abroad that allow you to explore your interests across continents and cultures. 

No matter where you choose to spend a semester abroad, you can gain an understanding of how global cultures are influencing contemporary art.

Please talk with your academic adviser about making our global locations work with your program of study.