Fine Art with Art History
Fine Art with Art History is a degree that combines the making of art with the critical study of its history and contexts. Fine art is the practice of visual expression and experimentation, developing your ability to work across a range of media and techniques while finding and sustaining your own creative voice and artistic identity. Art history provides the critical and contextual framework within which that practice can be understood, situating contemporary and historical artistic production within its aesthetic, social, political and cultural contexts and developing your ability to interpret and analyse works of art across time and culture.
The two disciplines are genuinely enriching to each other: the making informs the history, and the history informs the making.
At Aberystwyth University, this full-time three-year programme gives you the rare opportunity to study art history within a listed building where art is also being made, curated and exhibited. Your practical training is enriched by your growing understanding of historical and cultural contexts, and you have access to internationally renowned museum collections of fine and decorative art that provide a direct connection between your critical studies and the objects and works they address. The programme develops both your creative practice and your analytical and interpretive capabilities in a mutually supportive environment.
Fine Art with Art History graduates go on to careers as practising artists, art critics and writers, curators, gallery educators, arts administrators, heritage specialists, auction house researchers, teachers and arts development workers. The combination of studio practice and art historical knowledge is particularly valued in curatorial and education roles within museums and galleries, and many graduates go on to postgraduate study in fine art, curating, art history or museum studies. Teaching at secondary level or in further education is another well-supported route, and some graduates develop independent practices as artists alongside other work.