
Frequently Asked Questions
Please find some general information and responses to frequently asked questions about our programmes on this page.
Read our terms and conditions, including cancellation policy.
If you are interested in more formal study at The Courtauld, including applying for our one-year Graduate diploma, please contact pgadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk
- Short Courses 2025
- Spring Courses
- “The Root of Everything”: Drawing in Europe from the Renaissance to the Modern Period
- Looking at ourselves: A historical and practical exploration of portrait photography
- NEW – Making Sense of Art History: The Fundamentals
- Making Sense of The Arts of Islam: An Introduction
- Making Sense of Abstraction: Roots, Context and Meaning
- Variations on a Theme: Modernism in Art and Music
- Autumn Courses
- NEW – National Socialist, ‘Degenerate’, Émigré and Looted Art: The Aesthetics, Economics and Ethics of Art in the Third Reich
- NEW – Variations on a Theme: Art & Music in Early Baroque Europe
- NEW – Making Sense of Modern and Contemporary Artistic Expression: The Pleasures of Complicated Art
- The Art of the Sacred in Byzantium and Italy: Materiality and Meaning
- Making Sense of ‘The Classical’ in Art
- Revolutionary Tool and Artistic Medium: The Print in Europe from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Day
- Summer School
- Summer School online
- 1 – Carlo Crivelli and his Contemporaries: An Alternative History of Italian Renaissance Painting
- 2 – The Art of the Sultans: Ottoman Art and Architecture
- 3 – Renaissance Art at the Crossroads: Italy and the Netherlands
- 4 – NEW – Nature, Gender, Form: New Approaches to the Pre-Raphaelites, the Aesthetic Movement, and Arts & Crafts
- 5 – Power, Politics and Architecture: Palaces and Gardens in Mughal South Asia
- Summer School on campus
- 6 – Rococo to Revolution: French Art and its Geographical Contexts, 1700-1789
- 7 – Travelling Light: Turner, Constable and the Shape of British Art
- 8 – A Nervous State of Affairs: Art in Vienna, 1880-1938
- 9 – NEW – From Rodin to Hepworth: The Emergence of Modern Sculpture in Paris and London
- 10 – NEW – On the Roof of the World: An Introduction to the Art and Architecture of Tibet and the Himalayas
- 11 – Illuminating the Middle Ages: Interactions with Medieval Manuscripts
- 12 – Venezianità: The Art of Being Venetian in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
- 13 – Constructing the Heart of Empire: London’s Public Architecture
- 14 – Fathers of Modern Art: Manet and Cézanne
- 15 – Unruly Britannia: The Brit Art Renaissance of 1945-1970
- 16 – NEW – The Art of the Crusades
- 17 – Beyond Artemisia: Italian Women Artists in the Long Seventeenth Century
- 18 – Idealists, Realists and the Avant-Garde: The Battle for Nineteenth-Century French Painting
- 19 – After Impressionism: Routes into Early Modernism
- 20 – NEW – Being Human? Contemporary Art in Context
- 21 – The Byzantine World: The Arts in the East Roman Empire from the Fourth to the Fifteenth Centuries
- 22 – NEW – The Rise and Fall of the ‘High Renaissance’
- 23 – Re-Imagining the Everyday: Genre Paintings and Prints in Sixteenth- to Eighteenth-Century Europe
- 24 – Collectors, Exhibitions and Art Dealers: Modern Art in Europe 1863-1920
- 25 – The Ancient Maya: Millennia of Art and Architecture of a Rainforest Civilisation
- Summer School online
- Showcasing Art History
- Evening Study at The Courtauld
- Intersecting Practices: Architecture and the Figurative Arts in Early Modern Italy
- Holbein at the Court of Henry VIII
- The Long Road to Success: Giulio Romano between Rome and Mantua
- Pagans, Christians and the Art of Late Antiquity
- The Fear and the Fury: Abstract Expressionism
- Heroines: Depicting Famous Women in Italian Renaissance Art
- Making Sense of ‘Nature’ in Western Art
- Variations on a Theme: The Renaissance in Art and Music
- Making Sense of Ideas on Art: A Course in Art Theory, c.1900-c. 2000
- Making Sense of Abstraction: Roots, Context and Meaning
- Women Artists in France, 1770-1914
- Russian Art 1863-1932: Innovations, Influences and the Roots of Modernity
- Magnificent Women: Elite Female Agency and the Arts of Medieval Europe
- NEW – Europe and the World: Encounters in Art
- Study Tours
- Built upon Waters: The Sea in Venetian art from Tintoretto to Canaletto
- NEW – Bloomsbury in Sussex
- Ravenna: Capital of the Mosaic
- “The Radiance of the Day”: Making Modern Art on the French Riviera
- Vienna 1900: A Total Work of Art – June 2025
- NEW – Martyrs and Missionaries: Medieval Canterbury and Kent
- Munich Moderns
- Vienna 1900: A Total Work of Art – September 2025
- NEW – Orientalist Paris: Colonialism and Fantasy in nineteenth- to twentieth-century Art
- “Last rays of Sun”: Cézanne’s Aix
- NEW – Uptown, Midtown, Downtown: An Art-Historical Tour of New York City
- Saturday Study
- Open Event
- Students’ Voices/Students’ Work
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Short Courses Terms and Conditions
- About the Short Courses Team
- Spring Courses
FAQs
You do not! The only pre-requisite to participation in our courses is a passion for the visual arts and for art history, along with a good command of the English language.
Our courses are not assessed and while we provide extensive course materials on our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for most parts of the programme, it is up to students how much preparatory and subsequent study they wish to undertake.
Any student who attends either four Summer School courses in one year or six courses over three years is eligible for a Short Courses Certificate, signed by the Director. Certificates are made out in September after Summer School and will be posted to your home address. If you would like us to mark your achievement in this way, please send a note – by email or in person – to Jackie Sullivan at short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk by 1 September, with details of the courses you have attended.
Please note that our Study Tours, and the evening lecture programme Showcasing Art History are open to students over the age of 18.
All other programmes are open to students over the age of 16. A framework, including a Safeguarding Policy, is in place to provide a safe environment for young people participating in activities at The Courtauld. Please contact us at short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk with the subject line ‘booking under 18’ before booking for yourself or another person if you/they are under the age of 18. We will need to receive the consent of a parent or guardian before a booking can be accepted.
Student feedback has shown that our students find our courses extremely sociable. We keep class sizes low to facilitate and encourage discussion. On campus courses include breaks with refreshments, giving students the opportunity to get to know each other over coffee and cake. Those attending a Summer School on campus course are invited to the Frameworks programme, which is shared by all Summer School courses, and weekly drinks receptions.
At present, concessions are available for Saturday Study events.
The fee depends on a course’s length and intensity, and can be found on its webpage. Any income generated by the Short Courses is used to support the work of The Courtauld in order to advance the study of art history and conservation.
You can read more details about our fees and delivery methods in our terms and conditions, which can be found here.
For Showcasing Art History, please see the separate terms and conditions here.
Our courses are open to nationals of any state; it is the prospective student’s responsibility to ensure that they obtain whatever kind of visa may be necessary to enter the UK. Further information about visitor visas can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration.
Our search found that people from the EU or USA do not need a visa to study in the UK for 6 months or less, while for example Chinese passport holders would need to apply for a Standard Visitor visa to engage in short-term study. You can find out the specific information for your country here: https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y.
The Campus at Vernon Square
Vernon Square has always served as an educational setting. It was built as a school by the London City Council in the early twentieth century and has more recently served SOAS, University of London as a second campus.
The building offers two large lecture theatres, and nine seminar rooms on the first and second floors, and a reception space and open-air terrace on the top floor. It is fully accessible, with step-free entry, single-level flooring, disabled toilets, lift access to all rooms, and free on-site parking for blue badge holders.
Please bear in mind that all Spring, Autumn and Summer School courses on campus include visits to museums, galleries and other sites within London, its surroundings or nearby cities and therefore a certain degree of physical activity. Likewise, all Study Tours in person require a fair amount of walking and getting around towns and sites, in some circumstances on uneven or otherwise difficult terrain. If you have any doubts whether a particular course or tour is suitable for you, please contact us for further information.
For day-time courses held on campus, morning and afternoon tea and coffee will be provided free of charge, if you are on site, and water will always be supplied in the teaching rooms. In addition, refreshments can be bought in our staff and student common room, or you may wish to bring a packed lunch and eat on our terrace. There are a large number of independent and chain sandwich/snack bars in and around both King’s Cross/St Pancras and Angel stations, as well as several more sophisticated eateries.
Summer School 2025 features 25 intensive five-day courses on a global range of topics from late classical to modern art. Each course lasts five days, so you can follow one course per week.
As in all our programmes, we aim to combine a high level of scholarly expertise with an engaging delivery and a friendly atmosphere. From 2025, our Short Courses – with the exception of the evening lectures series Showcasing Art History and our Study Tours – are open to all over the age of 16. A framework, including a Safeguarding Policy, is in place to provide a safe environment for young people participating in activities at The Courtauld.
Small-group teaching facilitates discussion and ensures each student is given the lecturer’s attention.
See our full range of Summer School courses:
Summer School courses are non-residential but you may need accommodation while in London. Our research has shown that, at time of publication, the following still offer rooms during the summer. Please note that we have no personal experience of most of these residences, and are unable to assist with bookings.
International Hall – in the heart of Bloomsbury, a 15-minute walk to Vernon Square. Please follow the link below for more information about and to book the International Hall
https://www.speedybooker.com/en-GB/vendor/internationalhall
AXO offers short-term student accommodation at various sites in London. Their Oxford Circus residence is near Great Portland Street tube station, which has a direct connection to King’s Cross. Alternatively, it is a 35-minute walk to our campus at Vernon Square. AXO Camden and AXO Islington are approximately a 50-minute walk or can be reached by bus or tube from Vernon Square. Find out more about AXO short stays using the link below
iQ likewise has several residences near Vernon Square that can be booked for short stays. iQ City, near the Barbican, is a 25-minute walk from Vernon Square. Please follow the link below for more information
https://www.accommodationforstudents.com/student-hall/1684-iq-city-london
iQ Shoreditch, a stone’s throw away from Old Street Station which has a direct tube connection to King’s Cross, is a 35-minute walk from our campus. The link below provides more information about iQ Shoreditch
https://www.accommodationforstudents.com/student-hall/472-iq-shoreditch-london
Contact us
If you cannot find an answer to your query here, please do not hesitate to get in touch: