Learning Programme

The Centre’s Learning Programme continued to respond creatively to the challenges for international travel and study abroad thrown up by the pandemic. Under the leadership of Sria Chatterjee (Head of Research and Learning) and Nermin Abdulla (Learning Programme Manager), an exciting range of courses, awards and opportunities were offered for students and the public across a range of ages and backgrounds.

Yale in London hosted two summer sessions. The first included the courses ‘British Art and the Maritime World’ and ‘Contemporary British Theatre’; the second featured courses titled ‘Writing about Music in the U.K.’ and ‘The British Country House: Collecting and Display’. Students engaged in a range of study trips and programmed social activities beyond the classroom.

Two Public Lecture Courses were run over the academic year. In autumn 2021, Elizabeth Robles convened ‘Black British Artists and Political Activism’, which was fully online. Over six weeks, speakers presented a compelling set of dialogues about the relationship between art-making and political activism across key political and cultural episodes of the late twentieth century. In spring 2022, Jessica Berenbeim and Lloyd de Beer convened the much-acclaimed series, ‘Britain and the World in the Middle Ages: Image and Reality’. Through five lectures on medieval art (presented in-person and online) the series explored Britain as a place of exchange – of art, ideas, rare materials and people from all over the world.

The Plan, Prepare, Provide programme has proved useful for secondary school teachers to enhance the delivery of art history within their classes. In addition to workshops and an Art Teachers Residential, this year five teachers from the programme were recruited to the Postgraduate Certificate course.

The Write on Art Prize has seen growing interest from secondary school pupils studying a range of different subjects. This year the prize was judged by a stellar line-up of artists, curators and art historians: Sutapa Biswas (artist), Arike Oke (Executive Director of Knowledge and Collections, BFI) and Jo Baring (Director, Ingram Collection). The judges were extremely impressed by the high quality of the shortlisted essays and the care and time that applicants had put into their entries.