hi everyone my name is Dr Greg salter I’m a lecturer in art history and the admissions
tutor in the department of art history curating and visual studies here at the university of
Birmingham I’m going to talk a bit to you today about what it's like to study history of our
university and specifically showcase some of the things that Birmingham and we as a department can
offer you if you choose to come here to study as an undergraduate student if you choose to study
history of our at Birmingham you'll benefit from our expertise and our exciting modules
the wide range of opportunities that Birmingham and the midlands offer for immersing yourself
in art and culture and excellent guidance on career opportunities and employability
but studying art is also about studying the questions that are at the heart of contemporary
society art has become a point of evolving critical debate recently around the question
of the presence and removal of public statues and the histories of museum collections just
like the one I’m standing in at the moment this is a debate that places are the centre of questions
of global politics national histories and empire and you'll find that our degree program brings
you into contact with important debates just like this and will mean that you can critically
understand arts various and changing roles in society across history and all over the world
our degree program is object focused meaning that we teach you where possible through direct
engagement with artworks in situ helping you to develop vital skills of critical thinking and
importantly visual analysis the debates about art and culture that are unfurling around us
on a daily basis really underline the importance of understanding the visual and its fundamental
role in shaping politics and identities now more than ever our degree program leaves you
prepared to grapple with these questions and the changing highly visual world around us while also
opening up a varied and rich array of career options for when you finish your degree with us
one of the most exciting things about studying history of art at the university of Birmingham
is that we're based and work closely with a public museum of fine art and that is the
building that I’m standing in right now this is the barber institute of fine arts which houses
a really rich collection of paintings prints drawings and sculpture by important artists
from the renaissance up to the 20th century we've got works by artists like Botticelli Rubens
van Dijk turner manet Picasso Magritte and many many others
and this collection is continually evolving and growing the recent acquisitions include works by
the American 20th century artist George bellows a new sculpture by the avant-garde artist Naom Garbo
and amongst many other kind of recent acquisitions as well the barber is really essential to our
teaching from the first year course core modules that you take when you join us to your final year
special subjects as well we often teach directly in front of works of art and students choose to
study works of art in the collection as part of their coursework because the barber is a working
gallery as well we also regularly draw on the expertise of baba staff who contribute to our
teaching in their roles as curators marketing managers and gallery education specialists
in the second year we have an optional module called inside the gallery
which our students are introduced to the history of art museums and have the opportunity to work
closely with the barber institute and explore how modern galleries work in terms of curating
display publicity marketing finance and education resources on offer here in the barber include a
dedicated fine art library which is available to our students for study and research purposes
there's a concert hall and auditorium where concerts and opera are regularly held
you get the opportunity as well to volunteer in the barbers various departments right from the
very first day of your degree meaning you can gain valuable work experience right in the building in
which you're going to become very familiar also when you finish your degree there are three paid
barber internships available for our students once they've graduated and this is these have
been really great stepping stones for students into the professional art world in recent years
overall we have a really good size department there's between usually between 30 and 40 students
per year group across the single honours and joint honours programmes which means that students feel
able to navigate the department and make friends and meet people without feeling too overwhelmed
everything is based in this building so the gallery here the teaching rooms the library
and the vast majority of the lecturers based in this building as well so there is a real
sense of community and ease as a result that students do feel positive about and comment on
when they finish with us as well as studying in the barber you'll also be studying in a department
that has a really strong reputation for research and teaching for instance we ranked second in
history of our in the UK by the guardian in their most recent league tables and this was for the
second year in a row as part of this criteria rankings like this take into account the quality
of our teaching and research the people teaching you here are active researchers we regularly
publish articles and books curate exhibitions including exhibitions here in this building and
attend international conferences most importantly for you our teaching is directly informed by our
research meaning that you're being taught by experts at the cutting edge of their field
so you can see books on the slide here that are recently published by us and these are
just a few examples you can see that Kate’s work on Greece and Rome at the crystal palace
this feeds into her second year module on Victorian art and the British empire
you can see Khadijah’s book art in the time of colony which informs her module on political art
you can see Liz’s book on motherhood in the middle ages which shapes her module on women in the book
and you can see my book on art and masculinity in post-war Britain
which informs my final year module contemporary art and masculinity
so that you can get a better sense of who we are what kind of things we teach I can show you some
photographs of us alongside our key research specialisms there are 10 full members of staff
in all and our teaching and research interests stretch from the middle ages to the contemporary
so at the top of the screen you can see Liz and David who both specialise in the art of the
middle ages and the renaissance teaching art from the period about 1400 to about 1700. underneath
them is Kate with Claire Fran and Camilla they all specialize in European art primarily French
German and British art from about the 18th century up to the middle of the 20th century
and the colleagues on this slide are experts in modern and contemporary art especially
themes like global art migration postcolonialism and art in Britain
certain colleagues so Claire and Kate on the previous slide as well as Jutta salty
and Khadijah here have additional interests in curating and display others like Liz Camilla and
Fran and me on this slide work in one of the growing methodological areas of art history
gender studies which for us encompasses feminism queer theories and masculinities as well
several of us have also been working for a number of years already around questions
on art and decolonization particularly Khadijah and Kate this expertise means that we can give
you a really varied teaching program that not only looks at traditional areas of art but also
new and emerging questions about art in a contemporary and global context
and I think this course is structured really well in that respect here at Birmingham so you
get the best of both worlds I think a solid broad grounding in the history of our in your first year
then the option to take exciting modules that challenge your assumptions about art history
as you progress into second year and final year Birmingham is also a really brilliant city to be
a history of our student in and we help you get involved in the city's art scene from as soon as
you arrive we work really closely with Birmingham museum and art gallery which has a world famous
collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings also in the city centre is the icon gallery which is an
internationally renowned venue for contemporary art exhibitions there's also grand union which
is another gallery in Digbeth which is the centre of the contemporary art scene in Birmingham and
it features things like exhibitions readings film and performance art and every year at the
beginning of term we take all of our students over to dig the first Friday which is a monthly
event where all the independent galleries in Digbeth put on openings and special events and
it's a really enriching and fun evening out and a nice way to welcome you all back every year
our students also get involved with the royal Birmingham society of artists as well which is
an artist-led charity with exhibitions exhibition rooms in the city centre and
they run a young curator's program as well which our students have gotten involved in in the past
there are other great advantages to being a history of art student at Birmingham
including student support facilities study abroad opportunities and career development I’m going to
highlight these as the talk continues but for now, I’m showing you an overview of our degree programs
on the slide so we have a single honours BA history of art and then joint honours programmes
in English and history of our history and history of our and modern languages and history of art
uh so just to dwell on our joint honours programs briefly they allow you to combine the
study of two subjects we offer combinations with English as I said history and modern languages
from modern languages you can choose French Italian Russian Spanish and Portuguese all of
these are complementary subjects for studying art history but also appealing in their
right as well the university has introduced a level of flexibility that allows you to
choose how much of each subject you study each year in your joint honours program so you can
meld your degree to your particular interests and vary your credit weighting each year if you want
one of the other real advantages of this system is that students cannot take a dissertation that
bridges both their chosen subjects at the end of their degree and this is something that has become
really popular for our students over the last few years I’m showing you here a brief overview of our
single honours programme to give you a sense of what you can study at different levels with us
the kinds of modules you take become more specific as your degree progresses
so the first year comprises mainly core modules that explore the making display of our objects
key concepts and methods for doing art history and the development of art history as a discipline
in the second year you take core modules and these include a study trip to Europe which I’ll
talk about in a second and optional modules that usually focus on a particular period
or a particular movement then in the final year you take even more specialist modules
that look at particular subjects in depth in addition
in the final year you do your dissertation which is taught by one-to-one tutorials
and this allows you to research a particular art object over the course of your final year
for joint honours you take a selection of the core modules in your first year
and then a smaller number of art history modules in the second and final years
but there's no limit to the kinds of modules that you can choose
we teach you for a whole variety of methods so not just lectures and seminars that encourage
and develop skills like teamwork individual research skills and self-management additionally
the department offers quite a large amount of student support including personal tutorials
where you get given a personal tutor in the art history department when you arrive
this year we've got a new system where we meet regularly with our duties for one-to-one meetings
but we also get you together as small groups as well this is really intended to help you adjust to
life at university particularly in your first year help you get to know people in a manageable way
this is complemented by the student support offered across the rest of the university you
can see on the slide a picture of our well-being officer dye the academic writing advisory service
and the bank of assessed work which gives examples of work produced by students over the years
so you get a sense of what's expected of you in your particular assignments one of the most fun
parts of the teaching that we offer for you as students but also for us as staff is the second
year study trip this is a university-funded study trip it involves a week-long trip to an important
European artistic centre recently we've been to Paris trips in the past have been to Rome they've
been to Prague and Bruges and we're planning for berlin in the coming year before the trip
and guided by staff you identify an object to study in the city and you do some preparatory
reading around your topic once you're in the city you have the opportunity to study the object
in situ look at comparative works of art and take your own notes and photographs as well
when you're back in Birmingham you're then assessed for a formal oral presentation
the study trip is a brilliant experience because you have the opportunity to learn about
and see a whole variety of works that you would not otherwise have the chance to study
and of course it's a great way to bond with the rest of the group as well
outside of the wheatland study trip there are also other opportunities
to combine your studies with travel single honours students can opt to study for a semester abroad
one of our partner universities single honours and joint honour students can apply
to take an entire year abroad as well we have over 250 partner universities across the world
if you're taking a joint honours program with a modern language you will spend a compulsory
year abroad in the country of your target language and this is between your second year
and your final year we'll give you all the information you need about this right at
the start of your first year and you don't need to apply for this before you join us
more information about this is available from the study abroad team if you want to find out more
finally I want to finish by telling you a bit about what our students achieve
we are exceptionally proud of our results since in the last four years an average of around
30 of our finalists across single honours and joint honours have achieved a first-class degree
and the vast majority have achieved two ones last year's cohort achieved particularly spectacular
results as you can see on the slide and we're waiting for this year's results to come through
at the moment in addition to this our students dissertations are consistently highly commended by
our external examiners as well for their variety and their scholarship many of our dissertations
are awarded first class marks showing that our students are capable of real independent research
by the time they finish with us being a Birmingham graduate and especially a graduate of history of
art with us means that you're also very likely to get a job soon after graduating and also very
likely to have a professional career the places that our students end up working are varied
and exciting and they've included in the past the Bodleian library cartier kafkinston teach
the national portrait gallery oxford university press and even the British horse racing authority
some people ask us when they come to talk to us about the specificity of history of r
but the ways that we teach you here and the ways that we encourage you to learn provide you with
a really high level of specialized training and transferable skills that you can find in
many other humanities degrees skills like critical thinking textual analysis teamwork self-management
the ability to argue a point to get your ideas across orally visually and in writing these are
really essential careers skills for careers in fields like teaching journalism and publishing
it also a history of art degree also importantly equips you to undertake visual analysis which is
essential for anyone thinking about a career in museums galleries auction houses the art
market but also the media advertising the law and much more I think also as careers become
more and more digital and visual reflecting the increasingly visual nature of our society
being able to think about images critically and carefully and understanding them in their context
and how they have effects which is what exactly what we teach you to do here are all becoming
increasingly important in the job market so you can see on the slide here um examples of
two of our graduates Sapna who graduated back in 2013 to give you a sense of the long-term
career progression of our students and Izzy who graduated a little bit more recently and she was
able to build on her research and archival experience undertaken both during her degree
and as a volunteer at the royal Birmingham society of artists and she secured a post as an archivist
at cartier you can see that these are two quite different career paths but both very successful
so that's the end of my talk today all I want to say at the end is there are many opportunities
coming up for you to visit us in person and ask questions in person if you wish you can come and
see us at the open days that are happening over the next few months you can come and visit us on
offer holder visit days if you apply and receive an offer from us where you can learn a bit more
about what it's like to study here you can also keep in touch with us online you can look at our
departmental blog which is called The Golovine you can follow us on Instagram Facebook twitter
you're very welcome to email me with any questions at all my email address is on the slide
you're also very welcome to pop any questions or comments underneath this video
and we'll get back to you with some answers thanks very much for listening