Programme Specifications

N/A

History of Art, Architecture and Design

August 2024

The programme aims to:

1. Offer sound training in the discipline of Art History.

2. Provide opportunities for students to develop broad and comparative knowledge and understanding of histories of art and visual culture across places and periods, as well as in-depth knowledge and understanding about specialist topics.

3. Provide opportunities for students to develop a broad range of subject-specific and transferrable skills that will equip them for further study and/or their future career.

4. Introduce students to a variety of interpretative methods and forms of questioning to encourage critical and historical engagement with art and visual culture.

5. Provide opportunities for students to learn from the School of Art’s museum collection, including through direct study of collection objects across the curriculum and specialist module(s) about museum practice.

6. Provide opportunities for students to develop a foundational understanding of art making through practice in a range of media and techniques.

Knowledge and understanding of:

A1 A broad and comparative range of aspects of art and visual culture from the medieval to the present day, centred on Western Europe in a global context.

A2 One or more periods and places in depth, informed by staff research and/or study of the School of Art’s museum collection.

A3 The processes through which art and visual culture artefacts are designed and made, through active practice in a range of art making techniques and a variety of media and historical investigation of the cultures studied.

A4 The concepts, values, and debates that inform study and practice in the field of art history, set in the context of the development of art history as a discipline.

A5 The interpretative methods and forms of questioning distinctive to art history.

Learning and teaching methods used to enable outcomes to be achieved:

• Lectures (synchronous and asynchronous)

• Seminars

• 1:1 and small group tutorials

• Workshops

• Guided independent research

• Group-oriented problem-based learning

• Q&A sessions

Assessment methods used to enable outcomes to be demonstrated:

• Essays

• Dissertation

• Seen and unseen examinations

• Visual analysis

• Artefact study

• Reflective writing

• Slide test

• Presentation (live and recorded)

• Exhibition project

• Critical journal

• Book review

• Literature review

• Fine art portfolio

• Annotated bibliography

• Essay plan

10.2.1 Intellectual skills

B1 Visual skills: close and systematic visual examination, informed by appropriate knowledge of materials, techniques, and cultural contexts; clear and precise description, using ordinary and specialist terminology as appropriate and demonstrating awareness of the inherently translative relationship between the visual and the verbal; technical evaluation of artefacts considering materiality, production, methodology, and cultural context.

B2 Interpretive skills: set the artefacts studied within appropriate historical, intellectual, cultural, and institutional contexts; draw upon personal responses to artefacts distinct from other relevant meanings; develop arguments from close observation of artefacts; produce logical and structured narratives and arguments, supported by relevant evidence; relate the processes of making artefacts to their cultural functions; understand the role of artefacts as carriers of meaning and value; understand the iconographic value, informing culture, and the creative and production value; identify and analyse the development of and interrelation between forms and genres.

B3 Historical skills: use appropriate methodologies for locating, assessing and interpreting primary sources; select relevant evidence from the wide range of types of evidence used in the subject area, and apply it to the examination of historical issues and problems; produce logical and structured narratives and arguments supported by relevant evidence; marshal and appraise critically other people’s arguments and to argue on the basis of familiarity both with relevant evidence and with specialist literature.

B4 Cognitive skills: analyse arguments, tasks, and bodies of evidence, breaking them down into, and effectively dealing with, their component parts; bring evidence or ideas of different sorts or from different sources together in a productive way; identify and present the key elements of an argument; discriminate between alternative arguments and approaches; ability to apply knowledge and experience so as to make appropriate decisions in complex and incompletely charted contexts.

B5 Open-mindedness: be open and receptive to new things and ideas; identify the merits of unfamiliar arguments or cultural artefacts and the merits or shortcomings of familiar ones; appreciate and evaluate divergent points of view and to communicate their qualities.

10.2.2 Practical skills

C1 Research skills: capacity for critical, effective, and testable information retrieval and organisation; ability to design and carry out a research project with limited tutorial guidance.

C2 Communication skills: communicate information, arguments, and ideas cogently and effectively within a range of discourses as appropriate to particular audiences, and in written, spoken, or other form using appropriate visual aids and information technology resources; particular abilities in the deployment of visual material in conjunction with written, oral, and other forms of communication; the ability to listen effectively, and to participate constructively in discussion and debate.

C3 Museum skills: apply knowledge of the theoretical, methodological, and professional principles in contemporary museum practice to develop a range of techniques related to museum work, including object research, museum communication, exhibition and interpretive planning, collections management, and collections care.

D1 Teamwork: the ability to work constructively and productively in teams.

D2 Diligence: undertake and complete set tasks, whether routine and familiar or requiring the acquisition and application of new skills.

D3 Autonomy: develop an independent argument that is informed by, but not dependent on, authorities in the subject area; define one’s own brief, and formulate arguments that effectively structure relevant information; employ a variety of current and emerging digital technologies, demonstrating digital literacy.

D4 Time management and personal initiative: work to briefs and deadlines, including managing concurrent projects; take responsibility for one’s own work; reflect on one’s own learning and make constructive use of feedback; take shared responsibility for one’s own course of studies.

D5 Critical engagement: formulate and articulate reasoned, independent judgements and arguments, supported by analysis of evidence and experiences, and informed by, but not dependent on, the ideas and arguments of others.

D6 Problem solving: identify, analyse, and creatively solve problems individually or as part of a team.