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- UCAS course code
- VV20
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Course description
This joint honours programme allows you to explore art history and visual culture from the Medieval era to the present. As you progress to Years 2 and 3, you will select pathways of study that suit your individual interests.
The range of staff expertise offers you the opportunity to study a varied and exciting curriculum. We offer a broad choice of subject areas, paired with in-depth study and research. Strengths are in Medieval, Renaissance, Post-Renaissance, Modern, Contemporary and Global art history.
We also benefit from the expertise of staff within the Institute of Cultural Practice and several course units include study of the museum as institution, collecting, practical aspects of curating and making exhibitions, and art writing.
Special features
Placement year option
Apply your subject-specific knowledge in a real-world context through a placement year in your third year of study, enabling you to enhance your employment prospects, clarify your career goals and build your external networks.
Overseas opportunities
We offer two unique summer internships at the world-famous Venice Peggy Guggenheim Collection. In your second year you'll go on a five-day field trip to a European city*. The trip combines guided tours and talks with independent research and culminates in an extended essay on your return to the UK.
You may also apply to spend one semester studying abroad during the second year of your degree. Exchange partners are offered in Europe via the Worldwide Exchange scheme, in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong or Singapore.
* If overseas travel is affected by restrictions due to public health concerns related to the pandemic, suitable alternative arrangements may be provided.
Extracurricular opportunities
Join student societies including the Manchester Art Group , Arts Emergency or Whitworth Young Contemporaries Student Society , who aim to bring together students who have an interest in the arts, culture and creativity. The History Society also organises trips (in the UK and on the continent), hosts social events, and coordinates the student magazine, The Manchester Historian .
Teaching and learning
Teaching takes place in a variety of formats, including lectures, small seminar groups, workshops, gallery visits, and one-to-one tutorials. Our aim throughout is to support your interests and to help you to improve your skills and become confident independent learners.
Seminars are normally very interactive they are an opportunity for you to discuss readings and ideas in a supportive environment and to build your skills and confidence. Some course units feature group projects culminating in online content development or a physical exhibition/display.
Your learning will be supported by material on our virtual learning environment, Blackboard, including access to core texts and recorded lectures.
Where possible our courses include fieldwork visits to galleries or special exhibitions throughout the UK. This means regular classes in Manchester at places like HOME, the City Art Gallery and the University's own Whitworth Art Gallery.
We offer several travel bursaries through the Lady Chorley Fund to assist final-year students with their dissertation research.
Coursework and assessment
We use assessments including essays, exams, presentations, small-scale practical assignments, and learning logs - designed to help you develop a range of skills. Many course units are assessed through a mixture of techniques. In your final year, you will write a dissertation on a subject of your choice.
Throughout, you will benefit from expert support and supervision provided by lecturers and professors who are authorities on their subjects. You will get written and verbal feedback and will be able to meet with your tutors on a one-to-one basis to discuss your progress. As a student here you'll gain both academic writing skills and insight into the development of arts-specific composition, such as catalogue entries, gallery interpretation, exhibition reviews and journalistic articles.
Course content for year 1
This is a foundation year that introduces key art historical concepts and methods of analysis and interpretation as well as skills in academic writing.
It includes a substantial amount of gallery-based teaching.
Joint honours students take Art History courses from this menu:
The lecture/seminar courses 'Art Works in History' (1 and 2) and 'Art Spaces', which are designed to familiarise you with a range of materials from the ancient world to the present from around the world.
'Art History Tutorial' seminar courses, which run in both semesters. These courses offer interactive, personalised learning in small groups on a range of topics designed to refine critical and writing skills, and to introduce current issues in Art History.
Cognate course units are available from Historical Studies.
Course units for year 1
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
History in Practice | HIST10101 | 20 | Mandatory |
Ice Age to Baroque: Artworks in History | SALC10041 | 20 | Mandatory |
Rococo to Now: Artworks in History | SALC10042 | 20 | Mandatory |
Art Spaces | AHCP10051 | 20 | Optional |
Art History Tutorial 1 | AHCP10381 | 20 | Optional |
From Reconstruction to Reagan: American History, 1877-1988 | AMER10002 | 20 | Optional |
Constructing Archaic Greek History | CAHE10011 | 20 | Optional |
From Republic to Empire: Introduction to Roman History, Society & Culture 218-31BC | CAHE10022 | 20 | Optional |
The Odyssey | CAHE10101 | 20 | Optional |
The Making of the Mediterranean | CAHE10132 | 20 | Optional |
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Course content for year 2
In the second year, you take a mix of core and optional course units.
The objective is to provide you with a deeper understanding of theories and approaches in the study of art history, and a broad-based knowledge of both pre-modern and modern art and visual culture.
You will learn about different historical periods in the optional courses.
Cognate course units are available from Historical Studies.
Course units for year 2
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
Art in Theory | AHCP20432 | 20 | Mandatory |
European Art History Fieldtrip | AHCP20701 | 20 | Mandatory |
Art Markets | AHCP20152 | 20 | Optional |
The Art of Late Medieval Italy: Commerce, Religion, Travel | AHCP20171 | 20 | Optional |
Art in Britain | AHCP20221 | 20 | Optional |
Art in South Asia | AHCP20802 | 20 | Optional |
The Neo-Avant-Garde and the Crisis of Medium, 1945-1974 | AHCP22812 | 20 | Optional |
Surrealism, Gender, Sexuality | AHCP23711 | 20 | Optional |
Digital Ways of Seeing: Theory and Practice | AHCP24232 | 20 | Optional |
The Roman Empire 31BC - AD313 Rome's Golden Age | CAHE20051 | 20 | Optional |
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Course content for year 3
In the third year you take seminar courses each semester, allowing you in-depth contact with a wide range of subjects (many of which are the specialist areas of the members of teaching staff).
These 'Option' courses are focused on an area of study defined by genre, artistic identity, medium or approach.
They are taught in small groups and encourage participation and active learning.
Finally, you will also have the opportunity to write a dissertation of 10,000-12,000 words on a topic of your own choosing.
The dissertation, supervised by a member of staff, gives you the chance to research a subject in depth and helps you to refine your research and study skills.
It also gives you the skills necessary to organise a coherent argument over a long piece of writing.
Your option course units will be chosen from a wide array of choices.
Course units for year 3
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
History of Art Dissertation | AHCP30000 | 40 | Optional |
The English Baroque: Architecture and Society 1660-1730 | AHCP30012 | 20 | Optional |
We Will Be: Black British Art in the 1980s | AHCP30021 | 20 | Optional |
The Art of Clothing in Renaissance Italy | AHCP30041 | 20 | Optional |
Art After Modernism: Approaching Contemporary Art | AHCP30561 | 20 | Optional |
Picasso | AHCP33131 | 20 | Optional |
The Art of Medieval Manuscripts | AHCP33612 | 20 | Optional |
American Hauntings | AMER30811 | 20 | Optional |
The Roman Army and the North-West Frontiers | CAHE30882 | 20 | Optional |
Digital Art | DIGI30032 | 20 | Optional |
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Facilities
The rich cultural heritage and attractions of Manchester and the North-West are within easy reach.
The Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery offer unique access to the environment of the working museum and art gallery, as well as to important works of art.
The Whitworth is a major resource, and its outstanding collections of paintings, prints, textiles and wallpapers are used extensively in our teaching.
You can also explore original art in the city's famous galleries, such as the Lowry, Manchester Art Gallery and the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art.
The main library provision is the University Library, one of the UK's top university libraries with arguably the best access to electronic resources of any library in Europe. This is one of the largest academic libraries in Britain and houses a Special Collections Department (the John Rylands Library) on Deansgate which contains an internationally important and diverse collection of manuscripts, illustrated books and other material relevant to Art History.
Art History students also enjoy a discipline-specific library in the same building as our department providing a pleasant and quiet working environment for students.
Learn more on the Facilities page.