Art and Film

Art and film sit in productive and sometimes provocative relation to one another. Both are visual practices concerned with how images are made, what they communicate, and how they function in culture and society, and both have rich and contested critical traditions. Studying them together allows you to think comparatively about moving and still images, to understand each medium more fully by seeing it through the lens of the other, and to develop a critical and creative intelligence that is genuinely interdisciplinary.

At the University of Reading, this four-year full-time programme draws on the university's strong resources in both visual art history and film studies. You will engage with the history of art from a range of periods and traditions, studying how painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and other forms have been made and interpreted. You will also study the history and theory of film, examining questions of form, genre, authorship, spectatorship, and the relationship between cinema and culture.

Reading's connections to museum and gallery communities in the Thames Valley and London enrich the programme with opportunities to engage with work outside the university.

Critical writing is central to how both art history and film studies are practised. You will develop your ability to look closely, to construct interpretive arguments from visual evidence, and to situate works within their historical, social, and aesthetic contexts. These analytical skills are demanding and transferable, and they form the basis of the graduate profile that employers across many cultural and media sectors recognise.

Graduates in art and film move into careers across the cultural industries, including roles in museums, galleries, film festivals, distribution, broadcasting, journalism, arts journalism and criticism, publishing, heritage, and education. Curatorial roles, arts administration, and film programming are destinations for those drawn to institutional work in the cultural sector. Postgraduate study in art history, film studies, or cultural studies is a natural route for those who want to develop a research practice or pursue a doctorate.

Creative practice at postgraduate level is also an option for those whose interests are as much practical as critical.