Centre for European and American Art History
From Autumn 2012, a new Centre for European and American Art History will serve as a forum for the many staff and students at UEA engaged with the history of visual arts in Europe and North America.
European and American Art History at UEA
The School of Art History and World Art Studies at UEA has a strong convergence of expertise and interests in the history of European and American art. The art collections housed within the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts include many works produced in Europe and North America, from antiquity through to the present day. These include iconic works by world-famous artists as well as lesser-known, but no less historically significant, examples of European and American artistic cultures. The Sainsbury Centre is also the venue for major temporary exhibitions focusing on European/American artists and artworks. Furthermore, as part of the University of East Anglia, the School is situated in a region that is particularly rich in works of art and architecture from across the European tradition. The UEA Centre for European and American Art History is a focus for staff and students who wish to foster discussion, debate and collaborations concerning research and teaching in relation to the visual arts of Europe and America (broadly defined to include painting, sculpture, graphic and digital media, architecture, crafts and design).
Staff
There are currently nine members of faculty whose primary research interests are in the visual arts of Europe and North America, and two honorary/emeritus professors with interests in this field:
- Prof David Peters Corbett (19th and 20th centuries: British and American art)
- Dr Simon Dell (20th century: French, Spanish and American art)
- Prof Paul Greenhalgh (19th and 20th centuries: art, design and modernism in Europe)
- Prof Sandy Heslop (Medieval: English art and architecture)
- John Mitchell (Antiquity and early Medieval: art and architecture in the Mediterranean World, Rome, early medieval Europe, Byzantium and early Islam)
- Dr Sarah Monks (18th and 19th centuries: British and American art)
- Monica Nuñez-Laiseca (20th and 21st centuries: contemporary art and curating in Europe and America)
- Dr Margit Thøfner (16th and 17th centuries: Northern European art and architecture)
- Prof Bronwen Wilson (15th, 16th and 17th centuries: Southern European art)
- Prof Stefan Muthesius (18th, 19th and 20th centuries: British architecture)
- Prof John Onians (Classical to Contemporary: art and architecture)
For full career details see the School People pages.
Teaching and supervision
We teach right across the curriculum, from undergraduate to PhD students. Our teaching and research – in the visual arts of Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, Spain and North America – is informed by dialogues with colleagues working on the arts of Africa, Asia, South America and the Pacific, as well as those working in the Schools of American Studies, History, and Literature, Drama and Creative Writing. We offer an MA History of Art programme which features several pathways for students interested in studying European and North American art, while the World Art Research Seminar serves as a public forum for exposure to new research and debates in these fields. The School's undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes (including those in Museum and Gallery Studies) also draw on the knowledge, expertise and contacts gained by faculty members as curators of European and American art in major museums and galleries, within the UK and internationally.
Grants and scholarships are available on a competitive basis to both UK/EU and international students. These include both University and faculty-administered AHRC grants.
Students following European and American Studies options will be automatically entitled to benefit from the activities of the Centre.
These include:
- Invitation to a regular social gathering and research seminar in term-time
- Opportunities to meet other researchers in their area of interest as part of a mutually supportive community
- Access to a network of links in the UK, Europe and North America
- Advice and access to fieldwork opportunities
- Involvement in specialist events and visits to other institutions and museum collections
- The possibility of involvement in collaborative research and exhibition projections developed by members of the Centre