I was appointed in January to plan and oversee The Courtauld’s expanding adult courses programme and have great pleasure in outlining this year’s exciting educational programme.

The courses are intended for a broad audience, appealing to The Courtauld’s alumni and others with previous art-historical experience and to the complete novice alike. They achieve the difficult balance of delivering art-historical research and thought at the hightest level, while remaining accessible to all and being sociable and enjoyable as well as scholarly.  

Dr Anne Puetz, Adult Courses Programmer

 

Summer Schools 2008
14 July to 4 August 2008

The programme offers 27 week-long courses, 11 of which are new this year. This summer the courses are grouped into seven themes, each consisting of four courses: Sanctity and Devotion; Death, Saints and the Hereafter; Art and Architecture in England; Modalities across Renaissance Europe; Inspiration and Method; Modernism and Beyond and Themes in Contemporary Art.

The individual courses focus on a range of topics that examine these themes across different historical periods; all courses incorporate the close study of works of art. They are taught in small groups of between 10 and 16 students by Courtauld academic staff and other experienced art historians who are experts in their field. Lecturers this summer include Alixe Bovey, Caroline Brooke, Stephanie Buck, Sara Cochran, Richard Cork, Peter Dent, Michael Douglas-Scott, Alexandra Gajewski, Catherine Grant, Sudeshna Guha, Paula Henderson, Cecily Hennessy, Sarah James, Lucy Jessop, Richard Johns, Jerzy Kierkuc-Bielinski, Frederica Law-Turner, Anna Lovatt, Clare Richardson, Janet Robson, Matthias Vollmer, Christian Weinkop, Richard Williams and Catherine Yvard.
In addition to lectures and seminars at The Courtauld, the courses include visits to a range of galleries (including The Courtauld’s own), museums and sites, often with privileged access to collections.

Showcasing Art History III
This is a Tuesday evening lecture course intended to introduce participants to a broadly chronological survey of the major themes and approaches of current art-historical thought. The series is taught by Courtauld staff and eminent art historians from other institutions and runs over three terms. Participants are welcome to come to all three terms, for a combination of any two terms or for just one term.
A new series of Showcasing Art history lectures will begin on Tuesday evenings in October 2008; please check the website from June for more details of the programme.

Curators’ talks
Each of The Courtauld Gallery’s exhibitions is accompanied by a number of in-depth curators’ talks in front of the works in the exhibition room. They are free with the price of admission. Curators’ talks take place on select Wednesdays from 17.15-18.00 and are followed by a glass of wine and further discussion in the Institute’s foyer.
Current exhibition, Renoir at the Theatre: Looking at La Loge: Wednesday 14 May
Forthcoming exhibition, The Courtauld Cézannes: Wednesday 9 July, Wednesday 13 August and Wednesday 10 September 2008

For further information on all Short Courses please see our website at http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/publicprogrammes/index.shtml, or contact us at Short Courses, Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 0RN
Email: short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk Telephone: 020 7848 2678  Fax: 020 7848 2589

 

Forthcoming Study Tours
Padua, 19 – 22 June 2008
The Courtauld invites you to join Robin Simon, FSA, on a study trip to Padua, one of the hidden gems of Italy. Robin Simon, former Editor of Apollo and currently Editor of The British Art Journal proposes to share his longstanding  interest in Padua and thirteenth and fourtheenth-century Italian art more widely and to recreate a sense of the city’s ‘golden age’ under the rule of the Carrara family in the fourteenth century. Among others, you will explore such milestones of early Italian painting as Giotto’s frescoes in the Cappella degli Scrovegni (the Arena Chapel).

Berlin, 28– 31 August 2008
Our tour to Berlin in the company of resident art historian Dr Matthias Vollmer promises to be an exhilarating exploration of Berlin’s art collections. He will cover the major developments that have shaped German artistic expression from the nineteenth century to today, including nationalism and its impact on domestic style, the legacy of the Nazi regime and reunification of East and West.

Toulouse and Albi, 5 – 7 September 2008
In September, this tour will retrace the footsteps of medieval pilgrims and crusaders in the south of France. Dr Alexandra Gajewski will return to lead the visit to Toulouse, the ancient capital of the Languedoc, which has preserved many of its medieval landmarks. The tour also includes a day trip to the city of Albi, which gave its name to the Albigensian crusade.

Rome, 11 – 14 September 2008
This tour, led by Dr Cecily Hennessy, will explore an important aspect of Roman cultural history that is perhaps less well known to the wider public. The tour focuses on the art and culture of early medieval Rome, in the period between classicism and the Renaissance, and investigates a range of churches with rare wall paintings and mosaics, catacombs, sculpture, metalwork and early icons.

For more information please contact Jackie Sullivan on 020 7848 2589 or visit www.courtauld.ac.uk/publicprogrammes/adulttalks.shtml

Workshop of Roger van der Weyden, Portrait of a Man, c.1440/50, detail