How are art and contemporary culture connected? What is the overlap between art and social change? Art may be timeless, but in the new specialization from Duke University Art of the MOOC – Art, Culture, and Society, we’ll show you how art is also current. 

These courses have been created to engage with anyone interested in these questions. Whether you are an artist wanting to connect with society at large, a curator seeking new ways to frame your practice, or someone who has no background in art but has always wanted to feel closer to it and understand it better, these courses are a fun and reliable way to get there. 

Learn more about the courses in the series:

• Colors, Bodies, Power: Develop a rich understanding of contemporary culture and global art history. Engaging the course’s key ideas of colors, bodies and power for their own formal merit and the value of the artworks and artists represented, you will also learn how key artworks and artistic principles from areas as wide as color theory, performance studies, and cultural theory relate to larger social topics like indigeneity, race, gender, sexuality, and disabilities. 
• Public Art & Pedagogy: Explore how the roles contemporary art and experimental pedagogy have played in shaping public discourse and public space. 
• Experiments with Sound: Gain a deeper understanding of acoustic environments, how sound exists in everyday life, and how we can use it for discovery and social experimentation. 
• Activism & Social Movements: Learn  how social movements have created current culture and how contemporary artists have been involved in social movements. Covered topics include embodied knowledge, creative and organizational strategies from recent social movements, as well as the transformation of cultural institutions.

The cultural sector has become central to so many of the world’s most interesting places and thriving economies. Be it for personal or professional reasons, this specialization will prepare you to engage with it on a solid foundation. Enroll in one of these great courses or the full specialization today to start your journey! 

Subscribe to the Art, Culture and Society YouTube Channel

We are also excited to share our new YouTube channel, where both Coursera learners and the wider public can find free, weekly releases of conversations with guest presenters from the forefront of art, culture and society. These materials are not included in the lectures, so make sure you visit regularly or just subscribe to stay up to date.