Art History BA (Hons)
UCAS Code: Combined Honours only – see combinations tab|Duration: 3 years|Full Time|Creative Campus
UCAS Campus Code: L46
Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
As the UK city with more museums and galleries than any other outside of London, alongside the country’s largest contemporary art biennial, Liverpool will provide a vibrant cultural backdrop for your studies. Utilising Hope’s exclusive partnership with Tate, and visiting speakers from the creative industries, students gain a wide-ranging understanding of theoretical perspectives in Art History and how these are expressed through the workings of cultural organisations. Through our cultural partnerships and collaborations, students will be offered privileged access to important collections in Liverpool and experts working in the field.
Encompassing the study of visual and material artefacts, museum and gallery practices and the production and circulation of meaning around art and design. This degree provides a systematic understanding of art and design practices and theories with a strong emphasis on critical thinking.
In your second and third years, you will also take ‘Professional Practice for Art History’. These courses take in exhibition planning and design, curatorial practices and educational activities. These components address pathways into the creative industries and address the range of roles today’s cultural organisations demand – equipping students with the skills and knowledge necessary to secure future professional opportunities.
Hear from student Bryony Large about what it's like to study Art & Design History at Hope.
Course structure
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, where all students are taught together, smaller groups of seminars, tutorials, one-to-one meetings, site visits and professional practice elements.
For the Art History part of your Combined Honours degree, there will be approximately 6 teaching hours per week in your first year, which reduces to approximately 5 teaching hours in your second and third years. As well as teaching hours, you will be expected to spend a number of hours working independently each week, as well as working in groups to prepare for any group work you may have.
Assessment and feedback
Assessment methods vary but include learning portfolios, essays, a textual analysis, exams, project work and a research project.
You will be given written feedback on your assessments, and you will have the opportunity to discuss this with your tutor in more detail.
Curriculum overview
You will study a core art and design history block, exploring key developments in ancient, medieval, early modern, modern and contemporary art and design. This will be complemented by studying special topics informed by the research of art and design historians in the department. Furthermore, there will be professional practice projects and special study preparation, culminating in an individually researched special study.
Year One
Themes and Issues in Art History
This chronological lecture series introduces you to key events, styles and movements in the history of art and design, starting in Antiquity and ending with modern/postmodern art in the late 20th century. The lecture and seminar series is organised in five chronological period blocks. Within each block, thematic topics will draw together cross-disciplinary content relating to diverse aspects of historical art and design practices, from painting and sculpture to ceramics, fashion and graphic design. Themes of the study include concepts of the self and the body; the social and political role of art and design history; inhabiting the material world; producing and consuming art and design. Each block will also contain a key reading, which will introduce students to a range of critical thinkers. Each block lasts five weeks and includes one full day for a site visit.
Art History: Close Up Lecture
The ‘Close Up’ programme extends the lecture series through provision of in-depth investigation of particular themes, makers and objects. Lectures may include:
- Close up investigation of a single artwork or artefact incorporating both formal and contextual analysis
- Considering a range of diverse historical and cultural contexts for individual artworks, artefacts and practices
- Challenging the ’grand narratives’ of art and design history by drawing attention to marginalised areas of practice
- Workshop, studio or museum/gallery visits in order to handle and discuss materials/artefacts/artworks at first hand.
Historic and Contemporary Practices in Art History
This lecture series provides a complementary programme to the historically focused ‘Themes and Issues’. This topic will be structured to maximise connections across these programmes of study, e.g. attitudes to the human body in 20th/21st century art and design as a parallel strand to historical idealisations of the body. The interconnectedness between these programmes is intended to make explicit the relevance of historical studies to contemporary issues and ideas. This topic will also include guest lectures from practitioners from within and outside the institution, introducing a range of voices and perspectives to contemporary enquiry.
Tutorial
The weekly tutorial will provide a focus on developing study skills and methodologies, and encouraging student-led discussion and activities. Themes introduced during the three lecture/seminar elements will be picked up during the tutorials.
Year Two
Special Topics in Art History
This topic gives you the opportunity to get involved with academic research based on your tutors’ expertise. Special topics will be offered in the form of six-week blocks, including a site visit. Topics will include relevant approaches from the fields of Art and Design. These may change from year to year, but examples include 'Art and Environment', 'Gender and Sexuality in Visual Culture', 'Propaganda in Art, Design and Visual Culture' and 'Key Concepts in Twentieth Century Photography'. The seminar will pick up the content of the lecture through the texts of key thinkers.
Professional Practice for Art History
The practical component is a year-long lecture and seminar series studied alongside students studying Fine Art. It will introduce you to more advanced aspects of exhibition planning, project management and fundraising. The practical components will take place in the seminar and are largely self-directed. The assessment of this element, a Learning Portfolio, will focus on the preparatory stage of the exhibition planning.
Tutorial
Study skills and methodologies that were introduced during the first year will be explored in more depth during your second year. The other key function of the tutorial is assignment and exam preparation. Particular attention will be given to the Special Study Proposal, which is a viability study of the research project in Year 3.
Year Three
Advanced Museum and Gallery Studies
This course aims to provide students with a systematic understanding of how art and design is collected, cared for, displayed, exhibited and interpreted by museums and galleries.
The lecture series begins by tackling a number provoking questions such as: What do museum and galleries do? Who are they for? How are they housed? And where are they located? Students are encouraged to reflect on their own responses to these questions and to engage with museological theories that may support or challenge their argument.
As the lecture series progresses, we move on to critically examine the powerful role played by museums and galleries in presenting art and design to the public. These sessions analyse several contemporary case studies including: the collection display; the blockbuster exhibition; the biennial; and the digital museum. Students are encouraged to consider how museums and galleries contribute and respond to changes in wider society.
Throughout the year, we will be joined by a number of leading professionals who share their first-hand knowledge and experience of working at some of the most high-profile museums and galleries in Liverpool and the Northwest. These exciting guest lectures provide students with expert insight into the wide range of professionals and creative practices that take place in today’s museums and galleries, for example conservation, curating, exhibition design, education, installation, marketing, branding and fundraising.
Aesthetics
This seminar course offers the opportunity to study key aesthetic concepts relating to the making and understanding of art and design. The study of aesthetics offers insight into the reasons why artists and designers make what they do, and what viewers experience when they look at art and design. The history of aesthetics is bound up with philosophical ideas about the nature and function of art and design, and how the past has influenced current theories of art and design. The seminars each focus on a key aesthetic concept. Through study of these concepts, students will be introduced to a range of writers and philosophers of art, design and wider culture.
Professional Practice
Professional Practice will focus on advanced professional transferable skills and consider your future career goals by focusing on issues such as job searching, applications, training development and overall language and presentation skills.
Tutorial
Your final year tutorials are a mixture of group tutorials and individual tutorials, directly supporting you during the process of writing your final research project (special study or combined dissertation).
Entry requirements
A-Levels | BCC |
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UCAS Tariff Points | 104 UCAS Tariff points must come from a minimum of two A Levels (or equivalent). Additional points can be made up from a range of alternative qualifications |
BTEC | DMM |
Access to HE | 104 Tariff Points |
IB | 24 |
Irish Leaving Certificate | 104 Tariff Points from Higher Level qualifications only |
Welsh Baccalaureate | This qualification can only be accepted in conjunction with other relevant qualifications |
T-Levels | Merit |
Subject Requirements | No specific subject requirements |
International entry requirements
Specific Country Requirements | Select your country |
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IELTS | 6.0 overall (with reading and writing at 6.0) and no individual score lower than 5.5. We also accept a wide range of International Qualifications. For more information, please visit our English Language Requirements page. |
Careers
Many graduates in Art History go on to work in galleries and museums, academia, the heritage and cultural industries, community work, the media, publishing, marketing, advertising, education and the commercial arts sector.
Skills developed studying Art History such as visual analysis, critical awareness and interpretation, working with complex theoretical concepts and independent thinking, will open up a wide range of career opportunities. Students will also have an opportunity to do a student-led voluntary placement (in Year Two or Three) or a year-long Placement Year in industry between Years Two and Three.
Enhancement opportunities
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year are £9,535* for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,535*.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
*subject to Council approval.
Additional costs
As well as tuition fees, there is an additional cost of approximately £300 to cover the cost of the optional field trips each year.
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2025/26 are £14,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
This course is only available as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: