Programme Specifications

n/a

History of Art, Architecture and Design

September 2023

Offer sound training in the discipline of Art History.

• 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.

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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