BA in Art History

Year 1

The first-year courses introduce you to important works in the history of art, from Classical Antiquity to Rembrandt, from Michelangelo to Mondrian, and Warhol to Ai Weiwei. From Gothic churches to Rietveld and Rem Koolhaas, from Italian gardens to the Dutch polder landscape.

You learn everything about the most important artistic periods and movements, you take courses in visual analysis, iconography, and materials and techniques. Fridays are usually reserved for excursions and you visit Florence for two weeks in the winter.

Courses

• Beyond Antiquity: Architecture 400-1400 (5 EC)
• Beyond Antiquity: Visual Arts 400-1400 (5 EC)
• Seeing and Knowing: Visual Analysis & Iconography (5 EC)
• Paint to Pixel: Artist's Materials & Techniques Through the Ages (5 EC)
• Towards Modernity: Architecture & Landscapes 1400-1800 (5 EC)
• Towards Modernity: Visual Arts 1400-1800 (5 EC)
• European Cultural Metropole Excursion (5 EC)
• Reality Contested: Visual Arts 1800-1914 (5 EC)
• Style & Modernity: Architecture & Urbanism 1800-1914 (5 EC)
• Blurring Boundaries: Architecture & Urbanism 1914-now (5 EC)
• Blurring Boundaries: Visual Arts 19
• Reading Cultural Landscapes: Past and Present (5 EC)

Year 2

The second year has a two-fold approach: on the one hand, it deepens the knowledge you obtained during the first year by focusing on distinct subject matters, such as contemporary art, the design of landscapes, architectural theory, or Italian Renaissance art.

On the other hand, we challenge you by placing what you have learned in a broader, interdisciplinary context with courses on “Art & Science”, “Art & Environment”, “Architecture, Nature & Enlightenment”, "Art & Institutions” and "Medieval Landscapes and Architecture”.

Courses

• Architecture, City & Freedom (5 EC)
• Medieval Landscapes & Architecture (5 EC)
• Renaissance Art: Individual/Institution (5 EC)
• Art Now (5 EC)
• Designed Landscapes 1800-present (5 EC)
• Perspectives in Art Theory (5 EC)
• Art & Science (5 EC)
• European Country House Landscapes (5 EC)
• Global Dutch Art (5 EC)
• Architecture, Nature & Enlightenment (5 EC)
• Art & Environment (5 EC)
• Art & Institutions (5 EC)

Year 3

The first semester of the third year is reserved for your minor. We recommend that you choose a minor at one of our partner universities abroad. But you can also opt for a Career Minor that includes placement or a Faculty Minor.

After you have finished your minor, you go on a field trip to a major art or architectural metropolis, like Berlin, London, Vienna, or Brussels. You finish your program with a thesis on a topic of your own choosing. You acquire the skills necessary for the job market in all of your classes.

• Minor (30 EC)
• Excursion abroad: Art & Architecture/Landscape (10 EC)
• From Theory to Practice (5 EC)
• BA Thesis (10 EC)
• Practice Lab: Architecture/Art/Landscape (5 EC)

Programme options

• Modern and Contemporary Art (specialization)
• Early Modern Art (specialization)
• Architecture and Urbanism (specialization)
• Landscape History (specialization)
• Minors (minor)
• University of Groningen Honours College (honours program)

Study abroad

• Study abroad is optional
• For an average of 16 weeks
• Maximum of 30 EC

Art history is an international discipline. Our department offers the opportunity to intern or take classes abroad for bachelor's students. For instance at one of our partner universities in Ghent, Louvain, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Münster, Rome, and Bern.

Job prospects

Art and Architecture are of great importance to society. There are many career opportunities, depending on your specialization, master's degree and personal interests. Our Department's graduates pursue a wide variety of jobs and professions.

As a graduate of our Department, you are either specialized as an art historian, an architectural historian, or a historian of the landscape. The term 'specialization' is relative: you have completed a versatile program and you have acquired in-depth knowledge of works of art and architecture and their makers and designers, their patrons and historical context, and their function and audience. Art History graduates work in museums, curate collections and exhibitions, and they design educational programs. They work in television and radio, for newspapers and magazines, as art critics, and in the publishing industry. Historians of art and architecture also work for (local) government agencies, for example for cultural heritage management.

Job examples

• Curator
• Exhibition organizer/designer
• Restorer
• Journalist
• Professor
• (Policy) Advisor