Cambridge is one of the best places in the world to study History of Art. The city and University are home to fantastic collections of the finest art and architecture from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century. Cambridge has a host of museums, some of the country’s greatest libraries, and internationally renowned and dedicated academic staff to guide your studies.
Full course details are provided on the Department’s Prospective Undergraduates webpage and the University’s Undergraduate Study webpage.
History of Art at Churchill
If you regularly visit art exhibitions and galleries, if you look critically at buildings, or if you make art yourself and wonder why and how other artists have made it, then History of Art may well be the most stimulating subject for you at Churchill. For those interested in the modern period, Churchill has modern architecture and collections of modern sculptures, painting, prints, and stained glass. It is also close to Kettle’s Yard (the University’s modern gallery) and The Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College. The collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum includes over half a million artworks dating back to 2500BC and is a valuable resource for History of Art students in Cambridge.
Teaching draws substantially on the outstanding collections of art and architecture in museums and Colleges, and is directed particularly at developing a critical eye and a sense of visual history. The University also has several student art societies, and a life-class is held weekly in the Faculty of Architecture and History of Art.
Weekly supervisions will give you the unique opportunity to put forward your point of view, and to receive feedback on your work from a specialist. Seminars are particularly important in providing encounters with works of art throughout Cambridge’s museums and colleges.
Admissions
To find out about admissions, go to Apply | Undergraduates.
Entry Requirements
Course-specific information, including the University’s typical offers and the attainment level of the University’s typical entrants, is available by selecting your course from the University’s Course List then looking at the Entry Requirements tab. Academic offer conditions can vary by College so if you want to apply to Churchill then check out our entries in the by-College list of entry requirements that’s available on the same tab. The University’s Entrance Requirements and International Entry Requirements webpages may contain guidance relevant to you too.
You can learn more about the academic profiles of Churchill entrants and our approach to setting conditional offers on our undergraduate applications page.
Submitted Work
If you apply to Churchill, we’ll ask you to submit two examples of teacher-marked written work. These should be taken from your present or most recent studies, and should not be re-written or corrected for your Cambridge application. Ideally, each piece should be 1500 to 2000 words in length, and – where possible – we prefer essays on Art History, History, or English.
Admissions Assessment
All History of Art applicants are required to take a written assessment after shortlisting for interview. There’s more information on and linked from the University’s Admissions Assessments webpage.
Interview
You can learn more about the academic profiles of Churchill entrants and our approach to setting conditional offers on our undergraduate applications page. We are looking for students with intelligence, motivation, visual sensitivity, and general intellectual interests.
