Modern and Contemporary Art and Design

Unlock the world of modern art from a global authority on the subject. Modern Art & Ideas from The Museum of Modern Art is designed for lifelong learners, students, professionals, and anyone seeking to build high-level critical thinking and visual literacy skills. This is not your typical art history course. You’ll learn about art through accessible and relevant thematic frameworks—Art & Identity, Places & Spaces, Transforming Everyday Objects, and Art & Society—to understand how artists have responded to the urgent issues of our time. You’ll hear from educators, curators, and other experts and go behind the scenes with interviews from world-class artists and designers to hear about their materials, processes, and sources of inspiration. Whether you're looking to broaden your cultural horizons or add a creative edge to your professional toolkit, join a diverse community of learners from around the world and start seeing the world through a new lens.

In an era of constant visual noise, there is a difference between looking at an image and truly recognizing its power. This course invites you to bridge that gap, transforming a daily habit into a deeper understanding of the photographic medium. The Museum of Modern Art offers you exclusive entry into one of the world’s most influential photography collections. Videos take you on behind-the-scenes visits to artist studios to explore the diverse ideas and technologies that inform image-making. By analyzing 100 landmark photographs, you will uncover the cultural narratives, scientific breakthroughs, and creative choices that have shaped the medium’s history. Whether you are a student refining your research skills, a professional looking to sharpen your critical thinking, or a lifelong learner looking to learn more about photography, this course will help you develop visual literacy skills applicable to any field. You’ll cultivate your ability to navigate the visual culture that defines our world and gain a global perspective on how photographs are tools for storytelling, documentation, and critique.

Fashion as Design focuses on a selection of garments and accessories from around the world, ranging from kente cloth and denim to turtlenecks, swimwear, and 3D-printed dresses. Through these garments, you’ll take a closer look at what we wear, why we wear it, how it’s made, and what it means. Hear directly from a range of designers, makers, historians, and others working with clothing every day—and, in some cases, reinventing it for the future. Studio visits, interviews, and other resources introduce the history and development of each garment and their changing uses, meanings, and impact over time.