History of art
Gain a global perspective of the History of Art with a part-time course
Our part-time qualifications in the history of art recognise the globally diverse range of users, makers, and viewers, offering you the chance to join a group of peers eager to learn more about visual cultures, voices, and experiences. Discover the latest debates in the history of art, through flexible learning and visits to Oxford’s world-leading museums and collections.
What can you gain?
- Get up to speed with the latest debates and methods to interpret works of art, particularly in the areas of politics, society, gender and identity, material culture and decolonising practices.
- Exchange ideas and develop questions with a group of like-minded peers.
- Gain practical knowledge and develop your interpretative skills through museum and gallery visits in Oxford and London.
- Fit study around your commitments and responsibilities by combining online digital learning with in-person teaching.
Short courses for adult learners
Explore a new topic or revisit a favourite subject over the course of a few days, a few weeks or a term. Our short courses run in person or online, with some offered in both formats – so you can choose the best study option.
Upcoming courses
Online - flexible • Short courses
This course is for anyone interested in understanding Islamic art and culture, and examines the relationship between faith and art forms.
- Mon 20 Jan 2025 – 04 Apr 2025
Online - live • Short courses • Lecture series • Hybrid - in person or online
This lecture series will chart the broad history of painting and sculpture in Britain, from the Industrial Revolution to the 1930s: from the idyllic rural landscapes of Constable to the hard-edged Modernist abstractions of Hepworth and Moore.
- Wed 22 Jan 2025 – 26 Feb 2025
- 2:00 – 3:15pm
Online - live • Short courses • Lecture series • Hybrid - in person or online
This lecture will explore the contrasting approaches to landscape painting taken by Constable and Turner. Were the gentle Suffolk landscapes of Constable as idyllic as they at first appear? And what drove Turner’s fascination with the immensity of nature?
- Wed 22 Jan 2025
- 2:00 – 3:15pm
Online - live • Short courses
Join us to explore the rich and dazzling architecture of the Italian Renaissance in three key cities. We will investigate the differing ways in which the classical styles of the Renaissance found expression in Florence, Rome and Venice.
- Thu 23 Jan 2025 – 27 Mar 2025
- 10 meetings
- 7:00 – 8:00pm
In-person weekly • Short courses
Explore how Scandinavia and Finland produced some of the most talented artists in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Fri 24 Jan 2025 – Fri 28 Mar 2025
- 10 meetings
- 12:30 – 2:30pm
History of art award programmes
Part-time undergraduate awards and postgraduate degrees in the history of art and design.Undergraduate Certificate in the History of Art
The part-time Certificate in the History of Art teaches students about the production and provenance of works of art in museums, as well as key skills such as how to view and describe works of art.Undergraduate Diploma in the History of Art
A two-year part-time course in which you study two modules from a choice of four, each of which allows you to immerse yourself in a specific period of art history. Taught at second-year undergraduate level.MSt in Literature and Arts
An interdisciplinary programme which encompasses literature, history, art, architectural history, political thought and the history of ideas. Designed around 3 sequential periods of British history, from Early Modern to the early 20th century.MSt in the History of Design
This two-year part-time master's degree explores how ordinary things and places created since 1851 reveal fascinating traces of historical experienc