• New course on "Seeing through Photographs"
  • Free for enthusiasts all over the world
  • Fourth course launch supported by Volkswagen
  • Part of the multiyear partnership between Volkswagen Group of America and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and MoMA PS1
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York expanded its wide selection of online education courses with a new course featuring the history and the artistic importance of photography. As part of its role as the lead partner for the museum's education programme, Volkswagen Group of America supported the production of the course content, which is now available on Coursera free of charge.

The course, "Seeing Through Photographs," which is broken down into six modules, is available at  www.coursera.com  and includes the voices of 48 photographers who have had a significant impact on the development of photography over the past 180 years. As part of the course, participants shall become familiar not only with details about the content of famous photographs, but also with the artistic aspects of the origin, processing and circulation of each of the photographic works through interviews with leading photographers, discussions with MoMA's curators and analyses.

"With some 2 billion people around the world accessing the Internet every day, this online course puts MoMA"s collection into action. Drawing from the expertise of our curators and educators, and inspiration from artists in the collection, it will help a wide and diverse audience to develop critical skills with regard to looking at and thinking about images, which are all around us today." said Wendy Woon, the Edward John Noble Foundation Deputy Director for Education at MoMA. "We are grateful to Volkswagen Group of America for their support in helping us to continuously develop new ways of providing access to great works of art."

"MoMA's online education programme is outstanding in its scope and it allows a global audience to benefit from the curators' knowledge and to experience the works of the world-famous collection virtually, without visiting the museum. Art therefore has a new way of revealing its power all over the world. We have been supporting this web-based programme intensively and on a long-term basis, since it enables people around the world to access art", adds Benita von Maltzahn, Head of Cultural and Social Engagement, Volkswagen Group Communications.

The online course "Seeing through Photographs" is supported within the framework of the long-term partnership, founded in 2011, between MoMA, MoMA PS1 and Volkswagen Group of America. This cooperation is embedded in the Volkswagen Group's international engagement in art and cultural affairs underscoring Volkswagen's comprehensive social responsibility.