Museum Experience in Florence - Summer

This IED course on Museum Studies and Audience Development in Florence, Italy bridges theory with practice. It gives students a structured introduction to how museums function—historically and today—and how they connect with audiences through exhibitions, programming, and digital engagement.

The course centers on four interconnected areas of study. Students analyze key debates in museum theory, study audience engagement strategies, conduct on-site visits to Florence's leading institutions—including the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, Museo Novecento, and Palazzo Strozzi—and complete a final team workshop designing a real Public Program event for a specific museum.

Students share visits with Arts Management students, deepening cross-disciplinary exchange. Learning is active and dialogic throughout, grounded in a learn-by-doing methodology that moves between classroom analysis and direct institutional observation across Florence's rich and varied museum landscape.