Art History and Curatorial Studies

The Bachelor of Art History and Curatorial Studies is the first and only degree of its kind offered in Western Australia. By combining art historical knowledge with curatorial methods and techniques, this degree equips students with a variety of career pathways, including arts management, museum and gallery curation, as well as art criticism and analysis. Though focused on Art History and its curatorial applications, this degree also cultivates transferrable skills in visual and spatial analysis, critical thought, and oral and written communication. Offering distinct opportunities for foreign study, industry placements, and object-based learning, this degree activates Art History through hands-on experience in the field and engagement with exhibitions and curatorial institutions. Areas of study include the history of art and exhibition making from early modern times, to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Paris to Beijing, Papunya to Bidydanga. The unit empowers students with a working knowledge of how art has been made and exhibited in order to give them the language used in current curatorial and scholarly contexts. It educates students in how to write about art in various ways, including exhibition proposals and critical reviews. In this way the course empowers students with the ability to work for collecting and exhibiting institutions, as well as independently. With an honours level degree, the course also offers opportunities to enter postgraduate study, at Masters or PhD level, or around the world. Current graduates are studying in American and English universities, and working across Australia in art galleries and museums.