Master of Arts in History of Art (with optional pathway in British Art) University of Birmingham, UK

Are you fascinated by visual culture and history relating to a specific artist, period or movement ? Do you want to learn about the methods of art history and how to apply them to particular historical problems?

This programme provides you with the opportunity to choose from a range of subject areas and historical periods in History of Art. It is ideal for those who wish to develop a solid foundation in History of Art, either as preparation for further research or for related careers. You will have the opportunity to develop both academic and professional contacts to support your personal and professional development.

Our students are taught within the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, an internationally renowned art gallery located at the University of Birmingham campus. Students are part of small seminar groups and benefit from furthering their study. Classes are taught not only at the Barber Institute, our ‘house gallery’, but also at the galleries on campus and in town.

The programme offers a range of topics all of which relate to our staff research interests and expertise. Modules, which are all on a rotating schedule, range from ‘Inside Out’, which looks at Parisian interiors in the nineteenth century, to modules covering art up to the present day, such as ‘Postcolonial Readings of Contemporary Art’. Others deal with issues such as queer studies and sexuality, globalisation and migration. We also have a strong expertise in exhibition cultures and curatorial studies. Unusual nowadays, we also offer modules on art in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.   

British Art Pathway

Students taking advantage of our British Art Pathway have the opportunity to investigate and query the narratives of British art. This focus offers exciting possibilities to study a field that is seemingly already well established in terms of institutions and journals which concentrate on British art, and movements (such as the Pre-Raphaelites, Vorticism or the yBAs, the Young British Artists), but still constantly evolving (Black and Queer British art; and with Brexit and its potential impact on art and the art market). It also offers the opportunity to investigate how, when and why nation-state identities have been related to art.

The pathway also covers a number of issues arising from a global context of art. With a quarter of the world population belonging to the British Empire at its height, British Art allows you to explore postcolonial theories, mobility and processes of decolonisation.