Admission Requirements "Live Art Forms"
The following requirements are necessary for admission to the MA Live Art Forms program:
(1) a first professional university degree at least at Bachelor level acquired in
- an artistic or design course, especially in the visual or performing arts, at a university, art college, college of drama, music or film, technical college, university of applied sciences or equivalent institution of higher education, or
- a course of study in the humanities, social sciences, political science, or natural sciences, with a standard period of study of at least eight semesters at a university, technical college, or equivalent institution of higher education.
In the case of previous studies, the commission may decide, in deviation from letter a), whether an application can be admitted, provided that the artistic aptitude and the presented master's project give reason to expect successful studies.
(2) proof of language skills in English as a foreign language TOEFL IBT (internet-based test) with a score of 72 – 94) or Cambridge Certificate FCE (First Certificate in English), IELTS (5,0 – 6,5) or TELC English B2, TELC English B2 University
German competence level A1 of the European Reference Framework to be submitted until start of studies and
(3) successful completion of the qualifying examination.
(4) Applicants whose highest degree is BA level must also have at least one year of independent professional experience, which they will be asked to exemplify during the qualifying examination.
Application
To study at the academy, you will need to meet the specified admission requirements. Your application must also include proof of your artistic and creative aptitude in the form of a portfolio and you must take part in an online interview. Applications must be uploaded by April 15th, 12:00 noon, to the online application portal, which will be activated at the start of the application phase on March 1st.
This year we will accept your portfolio and written application documents in digital form only.
(Please note that the application tool is bilingual. You can change the settings on the upper right corner of the screen from "Deutsch" to "English")
For orientation, please take note of the Information for student applicants Master’s program Live Art Forms and the Information sheet for the 2026/27 digital application
Required documents
The following documents must be uploaded in English to the academy application portal by 12:00 noon on April 15th:
Information: You can only upload one single file in PDF format with a maximum of 12 MB per document type. Please name them according to the following scheme: document type _lastname.pdf (example: curriculum vitae_mustermann.pdf).
1 | letter of motivation, one page size DIN A4,
2 | description of the work project planned during the course of study and how it will be realized in terms of time and location, on a maximum of 2 pages size DIN A4,
3 | tabular curriculum vitae of no more than two pages size DIN A4,
4 | portrait photo (optional),
5 | university degree diploma,
6 | proof of language skills in English as a foreign language (if already available) TOEFL IBT (internet-based test) with a score of 72 – 94 or Cambridge Certificate FCE (First Certificate in English), IELTS ( 5,0 – 6,5) or TELC English B2, TELC English B2 University
German competence level A1 of the European Reference Framework to be submitted until start of studies and
7 | work samples of your own artistic work in the form of a digital portfolio with a maximum length of 40 pages, which can contain a maximum of 5 hyperlinks to time-based documentations of a maximum total length of 15 minutes and a maximum of 3 hyperlinks to web-based projects and apps,
8 | a written statement of authorship for all submitted work (you can find a corresponding form on our website)
9 | and in case your portfolio contains hyperlinks, a signed statement: "I certify that the artistic works viewable through the hyperlinks listed in the application were created prior to the submission deadline of April 15th 2024, 12:00 noon and will not be altered thereafter."
You can upload your documents to the application portal by 12:00 on April 15th.
We regret that incomplete applications will not be considered.
Qualifying examinations
The qualifying examinations are a two-stage selection procedure for applicants to the master's program. After the portfolio review, selected applicants will receive an invitation for the online interview. The qualifying examinations are structured as follows
1 | preselection round and portfolio review,
2 | oral examination.
1 | Applicants shall submit some works allowing an assessment of their artistic talent and aptitude in the preselection round for admission to the examination interview [see Application, Section 7 – Portfolio].
2 | Applicants who are assessed as being suitable on the basis of the work submitted for the preselection round shall be admitted to the oral examination. The interviews will be held in English. The date will be communicated via e-mail to applicants admitted to the examination.
