As one of the first universities to explore design, clothing, and decoration as part of the history of art, Brighton has a rich heritage in the field, as well as excellent facilities and close relationships with local and national museums.
Our unique and respected programme explores the history of art and design around the world, from traditional manufacture to emerging contemporary practices. The course covers subjects including fine art, design, heritage, museum studies, film and fashion.
Guided by an expert course team, you will engage with a wide range of art and design objects, and learn to explore the use, production, preservation, social value and cultural memory of the things that societies and individuals have created.
You will have access to resources including our Dress and Textiles History Teaching Collection, as well as our world-renowned Design Archives and Screen Archive SouthEast, all based at the university.
Brighton has an abundance of public art, it hosts the largest arts festival in England, the Brighton Festival, and has numerous art galleries offering a range of work by up-and-coming as well as established artists.
With dozens of period clothes shops, retro design boutiques and second-hand record shops, Brighton is the perfect location for a critical examination of how and why the past is revived, stylised, packaged and sold.
The University of Brighton was one of the founding institutions for research in design history and maintains a commitment to excellence today; our professors are world authorities in both design and dress history and the culture of photography.
You'll build up core knowledge of the history of art and design and develop your own specialist areas of interest from a wide choice of option courses.
You'll have unique access to our in-house Design Archives, the Dress and Textiles Teaching Collection and Screen Archive South East and benefit from our strong links with local and national museums, including the V&A. You can view the Design Archives blog for insight into our conservation work.
Work placements will allow you to examine artefacts in the context of an archive, museum or public collection and gain valuable, relevant experience.
The course is delivered through core lectures and seminars, seminar-based options and team-based and individual projects. Our dedicated staff integrate their own research with their teaching.
You'll develop your capacity for critical inquiry and analysis of objects and source materials that will equip you for careers in archives, galleries, museums, heritage sites and auction houses.
You'll be part of our lively student community studying History of Art and Design courses at Brighton. Check out the History of Art and Design blog and Twitter feed for an insight.
2018 graduate Wendy Fraser talks about returning to university as a mature student to study a subject she is truly passionate about.
In this module you will explore core concepts and historical phenomena, including colonialism, consumption, national identities and class constructions, which impacted on art, design and culture from the closing decades of the eighteenth century to the opening decades of the nineteenth. Through lectures and seminars, you will explore how enlightenment ideas and philosophies, as well as revolutionary upheavals and developing institutional practices, informed the conditions in which art and design was produced and consumed.
In this module you will explore aspects of Brighton and Hove that are significant to the history of art and design within the locality and in some cases more broadly, through the introduction of key sites, themes and resources, for example, the Royal Pavilion and Museums; the historical development of local identities in subcultures and sexualities and Brighton on film. The topics are complemented by a seminar series that will equip you with the skills and tools to the study of history of art and design at degree level.
This module will introduce you to core concepts and key words in the humanities (including ideology, gender, class, nationality and ethnicity) and will provide opportunities for evaluating your utility as a means of understanding art and design through your application to practices, sites and artefacts.
Through lectures and seminars, you will examine how ideas of 'the modern' and the contradictions of modernity are manifested in a wide range of visual and material culture including realist paintings, photography, advertising, dress, cities and international exhibitions during the long nineteenth century. The module relates practices of art, design, exhibition and dress to changing social structures and occupational patterns that informed many of the debates around art and design in the period.
This module will introduce you to the frameworks and tools by which a variety of visual and material objects, images and environments can be 'read' and understood. The emphasis of the module is on the acquisition and application of a range of different technical methods for image and object analysis across a range of media forms, including acquisition of the specialist vocabulary suitable to the analytical method deployed, and an understanding of the appropriateness of each technique.
In this module you will undertake an intensive themed study related to your individual preferences and/or programme of study. The module will introduce you to the teaching and learning methods most relevant to the investigation of a particular area of inquiry within the History of Art and Design programme.
Lithograph of a model elephant in the Indian Court of The Great Exhibition of 1851 from 'Dickinsons' Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851' published in 1854.
In semester two you have the opportunity to undertake a placement – see placement section below.
You can go on a five-day trip to a European city to study art, design and visual culture in context, with possible destinations including Paris and Berlin. The trip is optional and costs around £300.
**These modules may explore themes including modernism in Asia; museums, material culture and representation; cold war cultures; reading dress.
Clock design by Paul Clark, late 1960s. University of Brighton Design Archives.
The final year sees you execute independent but closely supervised research projects, including your own dissertation, a group display project and a visual display of your dissertation research, which is shown as part of the graduate show. In these projects you are supported by one-to-one or small group supervision as well as peer support.
The Special Subject module typically enables students to explore themes like making the modern home: design, domesticity and discourse; participation, performance, politics; the limits of representation; the past in the present: retro, vintage, revival; and fashion contexts.
'Brighton through the year: the official handbook of the Corporation of Brighton' c.1930. Available from the university's St Peter's House library.
Original poster designs produced for dissertation projects by final-year students.
An international authority on British art, Lara is interested in the interactions between artists and art institutions. She is a specialist in nineteenth-century England, and explores how art practice responded to its specific historical contours in terms of national identity, history and gender.
Harriet Atkinson, Verity Clarkson, Angelica Groom, Anna Vaughan Kett, Yunah Lee, Charlotte Nicklas, Annebella Pollen, Louise Purbrick, Megha Rajguru, Cheryl Roberts, Dr Glenn Ward.
Our Dress and Textiles Teaching collection gives you the chance to closely examine and photograph historical and world fabrics and garments.
The university has close relationships with local festivals and organisations such as CineCity, the Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton Festival, Brighton Festival Fringe, Brighton Digital Festival, Fabrica and Lighthouse. These connections provide a range of opportunities for students.
Students have access to the world-class Design Archives.
Please enable functional cookies in order to view our history of art and design student work brochure on our website, or you can view the publication on Issuu.
History of Art and Design programme dissertation catalogues 2018. View catalogues from previous years on Issuu.
Donna Gilbert, BA Fashion and Dress History, reflects a recent talk by fashion historian, Amber Butchart.
Triin Jerlei, a postdoctoral researcher at Vilnius University, Lithuania, and graduate of University of Brighton, shares her new research project in the history of design.
The placement option module is intended to provide direct experience and insight into aspects of museum, gallery and archival working practices, both for those students who may be considering pursuing a career in this field, and for those who wish to deepen their understanding of cultural institutions.
The module is based around student placements in a range of local museums, galleries, archives and creative services. Students work closely with professionals on focused tasks such as curating, cataloguing, collections management, publications and other areas of cultural practice.
Student Sarah Watts on placement at Brighton gallery Fabrica.
When will I do my placement?
Students and placements are paired up carefully depending on individual interests.
40 hours split over an agreed number of weeks.
It is an assessed module and directly contributes to your degree award. Assessment includes a log book, presentation and essay.
It is not salaried but the university pay for train travel.
To a museum, gallery, archive or other creative service within the Sussex area.
What kind of companies can I go to?
Placements undertaken include: Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Design Archives, Worthing Museum, Ditchling Arts and Crafts Museum, The Keep, Phoenix Gallery.
How was your placement arranged?
There was an option module which allowed students to undertake a placement and then reflect on this in the form of an essay, a log book and a presentation. Everything was arranged by tutors but we were consulted if travel was involved.
What kind of things did you get to do?
I spent time with several members of staff including the director, curator, general manager, communications manager and the volunteer coordinator. I was allowed to sit in on many meetings, including internal staff meetings, meetings with guest curators and possible event partners. I spent some time in the collection store learning about collection maintenance, storage and ethical disposal. I also helped to update and digitalise loan records. I spent a lot of time researching existing visitor types and exploring ways in which to boost visitor numbers, whilst also encouraging a more diverse range of people to visit the museum.
I found it to be a very enriching and pleasant experience. The staff were very welcoming, friendly and grateful for my help too.
Has it led to any other opportunities?
This real world experience has enhanced my subsequent essays and presentations regarding museum practice. I chose to stay on as a volunteer and this allowed me access to private viewings, as well volunteer specific talks from guest curators.
I have applied to stay on at Brighton to do the MA in Curating Collections and Heritage. After that I would like to go into curating. My placement certainly played a part in this decision.
Students move into positions in commercial and cultural organisations, as well as into teaching and journalism. Graduates from the History of Art and Design programme hold senior appointments at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada and the Edinburgh College of Art and many take up careers in museums, galleries, heritage sites, arts administration and auction houses.
Others study for further professional qualifications or postgraduate degrees, including our own well-respected Curating Collections and Heritage MA, and our History of Design and Material Culture MA.