MA History of Art/Social & Public Policy

About this course

History of art combined with social and public policy brings together two disciplines that examine how societies organise themselves and represent themselves to the world. History of art seeks to understand how paintings, sculptures, buildings and works of design come to look the way they do: what choices artists and patrons made, what those choices meant in their historical and cultural context, and how those meanings have been interpreted across subsequent centuries. Social and public policy examines how societies distribute resources, develop services and respond to collective needs, addressing issues of poverty, inequality, housing, health, education and social justice through the analytical tools of the social sciences. At the University of Glasgow you will study history of art and social and public policy on a part-time basis, with a year abroad built into the programme to broaden your academic perspective. The history of art component examines visual and material culture across periods and geographies, developing the interpretive and analytical skills to understand works in their historical and social context. The social and public policy strand develops your knowledge of how welfare states and public services are organised and how policy is made and evaluated. The University of Glasgow's research strengths in both areas inform the programme's intellectual character. Graduates of this kind of combined programme work in social research, policy development, museums and galleries, arts education, the civil service, cultural policy, community development, heritage organisations and a range of public and voluntary sector roles. The combination of visual and cultural analytical skills with knowledge of social policy is particularly suited to careers in arts funding, cultural access and equity, heritage management and the policy dimensions of cultural provision. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in art history, museum studies, social policy, heritage or related fields, and the interdisciplinary formation of the degree is a strong foundation for careers that bridge cultural and social concerns.

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