Short Courses in Art History at Adult Continuing Education (ACE)

The Irish Times profiles a staff member on the European Art History Programme

John Paul McMahon, Art Historian and Proprietor Chef extraordinairehttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2012/0908/1224323667682.html
. . .his next appearance for Cork audiences will be on the topic of representations of food in Spanish Baroque painting on the European Art History programme at Univeristy College Cork.

A new daytime art history option to be hosted by Triskel-Christchurch from September

In response to popular demand, Adult Continuing Education is pleased to announce an exciting new collaboration with the Triskel Arts Centre at Christchurch, to host the Certificate and Diploma in European Art History as a daytime programme, for the first time in its twenty-one year existence, beginning in late September 2012.

The daytime option will run in association with the existing evening programme. There are now two options available:

European Art History (evening option) classes will take place in West Wing 9, in the main UCC Quadrangle, 7-9pm on Tuesday evenings from the end of September 2012.

European Art History (daytime option) classes will take place in Triskel-Christchurch in Cork city centre, 10-1pm on Tuesday mornings from the end of September 2012.

Classes are scheduled to take place in the historic Alms Room, which only has a capacity for fifteen people. For this reason, early booking is essential.

About the venue
The original building of Christchurch took place around 1050 and is thought to be of Hiberno-Norse, or Viking origin and that it also may have been the first church built in Cork city. 

Triskel-Christchurch

Present-day Christchurch,, known also as the Holy Trinity, sits discreetly in the background of Bishop Lucey Park on Grand Parade. The entrance to Christchurch is located on South Main Street, once the main street of medieval Cork. Present-day Christchurch is an eighteenth-century neoclassical Georgian building (1720–1726) designed by architect John Coltsman. Coltsman also designed the North and South Gate Bridges, of which the South Gate Bridge has one of the oldest surviving three-centred arches in Ireland. The front of Christchurch was redesigned by George Richard Pain in 1825 and he was later involved in remodelling the interior. The present-day church sits on the site of two previous churches dating back to medieval times. 
Christchurch has many legends attached to its legacy, one being that in 1439 Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, came to Cork. Warbeck, claiming to be Richard, Duke of York was officially recognized by the Lord Mayor of Cork and his councilors and was crowned in Christchurch as King Richard IV of England. Another legendary figure associated with Christchurch is the poet Edmund Spenser (1552-1599). Local tradition has it that Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle in Christchurch on Midsummer Day, 11 June 1594. Read a history of Christchurch.  

Alms Room, Christchurch

How to apply

Please note that applications are currently being taken online at apply online

or 

Download an application form.


Please mark your preferred option either “daytime” or “evening” when making your application.  

Applications for new cycle of European Art History now open

"I see the gallery in a whole new way. Thinking about art in terms of relationships: artwork/ gallery; artist/ society etc".
                                                                        
                                                               Francis Moore, Diploma in European Art History, 2010/12

We live in an ocular centric society which privileges vision above the other senses.  For this reason, visual literacy is a vital skill in contemporary society.  The basic skills of visual literacy include learning to “read” images by fostering a vocabulary of concepts necessary for understanding and discussing images. 

Please note that applications for our certificate and diploma courses are currently being taken online at 
apply online 
or 
download the application form. 

UCC's neo-Gothic "stone corridor" -- lectures are held nearby

Over the past two decades it has been an important part of the cultural life of Cork. Interest in the visual arts, generated through involvement with this programme, helped to foster the department of History of Art, founded at University College Cork in 2001.



Experiencing the gallery space as a learning space



What does the culture of Europe tells us about its history? We seek to explore the concept of European identity, as shown through the visual arts, beginning with Ancient Greece and ending in the 21st
 Century.


The aim of this
 two-year programme will be to give you a complete education in looking 
at the visual arts within historical and
 cultural contexts. To help you understand the context of artistic production and
 creativity connections will be made between the visual arts
 (painting, sculpture, and architecture) and literature, music, film,
 politics, philosophy, science and society.

The diploma in European Art History is a two-year part-time programme, co-ordinated by Adult continuing Education (ACE), University College Cork. The course has been running now for twenty-one years and its success is partly due to the approach the Centre takes to learning which is strongly student centred in focus.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What will you be studying?

This course is not simply about art history; it is about making connections between the visual arts and other aspects of human creativity throughout history. At a time when questions about the nature of Europe, and what it means to be European, are becoming increasingly important to ask this new cycle of the certificate and diploma programmes will seek to explore the concept of European identity as displayed through the visual arts beginning with Ancient Greece and ending with art in the 21st Century. To help you understand the context of artistic production and creativity connections will be made between the visual arts(painting, sculpture, and architecture) and literature, music, film, politics, philosophy, science and society. The aim of this two-year programme will be to give you a complete education in looking at and discussing about the visual arts within historical and cultural contexts.


Who attends the course?

Course participants come form varied backgrounds. Some choose to do the course to develop a greater knowledge about looking at art and culture while others, like educators and heath care professionals, have taken the course for professional development.


Peer learning in a social setting


Who will teach us?

All teaching staff have been accredited by University College Cork. They come from a variety of disciplines including History, Art History, and English, thereby, ensuring that we are able to provide a programme that will both excite and challenge you.

Can I do the course for leisure only?

Yes, there is no requirement for you to do any examination. In this case, you will be advised to register as an audit student. You are entitled to receive a certificate of attendance once you have finished the course.


What are the assessments like?

If you choose to do assessments you will be guided by professional and experienced tutors. All assessments are designed to match your learning level. While we want you to do your best, most of all, we want you to enjoy the programme.


How much does it cost?

A fee of 990 euro a year is being set for this programme. You may also be entitled to fee concessions. For the first time this year, ACE have joined forces with the Lough Credit Union to promote a student loan scheme. This is another option open to you. For further information see
 http://www.ucc.ie/en/study/ace/

Are there gallery visits?

Study tour to London

Yes, the course schedules study trips throughout the two-year cycle. Previous classes have gone to Rome, Paris, London and Edinburgh. We also visit Cork galleries and galleries in Dublin. These trips are optional and a supplementary fee may apply.


Where can I go when I have finished the course?

If you are taking assessments you can leave the course after a year with a certificate. If you complete the programme you will be awarded a diploma. The awards are fully accredited, so you will be able to pursue further studies, across the European Union, at degree level if you so wish.

Where will lectures take place?

Lectures take place on Tuesday evenings, between 7-10pm, in West Wing 9, in the historic neo-Gothic quadrangle at University College Cork.

How do I apply?

Please contact Adult Continuing Education, University College Cork, “The Laurels”, Western Rd., Cork. Tel 021 4902301.

You can directly contact James Cronin, who is programme co-ordinator, at j.cronin@ucc.ie  

Applications close for this cycle on 14 September 2014.

Further details



see http://www.ucc.ie/en/ace/Courses/CertificateandDiploma/EuropeanArtHistory/

Art Pilgrimage: stained glass walking tour of Cork

Tomorrow, the Glucksman Gallery, as part of their current exhibition on the work of Josef Albers,  will be hosting a stained glass walking tour of Cork to include the Honan Chapel and St. Finnbarre's Cathedral.
Visit exhibition page.

James Cronin, University College Cork, will be speaking on the stained glass of Harry Clarke and the Honan Chapel. Meet at the entrance to the Glucksman Gallery, UCC, at 1pm, 1st June 2012.

To book a place please contact

Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork, Ireland


T: + 353 21 4901844

E: info@glucksman.org

Staff Research Spotlight -- Kirstie North who teaches on the certificate and diploma programmes in European art History at Cork

Kirstie North is a doctoral student in History of Art at Cork. She is a successful visual artist.  


Click on the image to open the invitation

Staff Research Spotlight -- John Paul McMahon who teaches on the certificate and diploma programmes in European art History at Cork

JP McMahon is a doctoral student in History of Art at Cork. He is a prize-winning  proprietor chief in Cava, Galway city 


My PhD research examines the work of performance and conceptual artist Vito Acconci (b.1940). Acconci’s work is important for contemporary art for a number of reasons, in particular expanding our definition of what we consider art to be (both materially and intellectually) and also in the ways that he has shown us that single works can be reconfigured many times to not only produce other new works, but to show how an art object develops over time. This latter point is perhaps the most important as we now, as art histories, how to take into account the temporality of the work, as opposed to its singular instance. What I mean by this is that we all know when and where Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa (date) but the work itself has a history and its meaning is not tied to the originary moment of the artist’s conception or production of the work. When the King of France hung the painting is his bathroom it meant something very different to its current status behind bulletproof glass in the Louvre.


Acconci’s work is typical of art made during this period in the way that he uses his body as the object of his art in order to explore some specific idea. Following Piece is a good example of this. It was an activity that took place every day on the streets of New York, between October 3rd and 25th, 1969. It was part of other performance and conceptual events sponsored by the Architectural League of New York that occurred during those three weeks. The terms of the exhibition “Street Works IV” were to do a piece, sometime during the month, that used a street in New York City. So Acconci decided to follow people around the streets and document his following of them. But why would he do this? Why would Acconci follow random people around New York? In essence, Following Piece was concerned with the language of our bodies, not so much in a private manner, but in a deeply public manner. By selecting a passer-by at random until they entered a private space, Acconci submitted his own movements to the movements of others, showing how our bodies are themselves always subject to external forces that we may or may not be able to control.


In terms of the art work, rather than being just another object that we look at in the gallery, Following Piece was part of the revolution that took place in the art world in the late 1960s that tried to bring art out of the gallery and into the street in order to explore real issues such as space, time, and the human body. Many artists, such as Acconci, used their bodies as their chosen medium.  All of these ideas were influenced by Acconci’s readings. As many other artists of the period, Acconci wanted to get away from specific art problems and engage with social problems. Acconci read books such as Edward Hall’s The Hidden Dimension (1969), Erving Goffmann’s The Presentation of the Self in Every Day Life (1959), and Kurt Lewin’s In Principles of Topological Psychological (1936/1966). All of these books explored the ways in which the individual and the social are interlinked in terms of complex codes that structure the way we act and live every day.


Ironically, for all the effort to get out of the gallery, much of Acconci’s documentation of Following Piece, for example, the texts, photographs (which were taken after the event!), and diagrams, now constitutes a work of art in its own right. MOMA owns several of the photographs of Following Piece and other “versions” of this work are also in existence. So, even though Acconci’s Following Piece was a performance that occurred in a very specific period (3rd to 25th October, 1969), the reproduction and circulation of the work continues. As I said in my opening, this fact not only teaches us important things about the nature of performance art and its relationship to the art world, but also how the context of the art work is also never exactly fixed and each time it is presented something new occurs with the work itself.

Shakespeare's Restless World

Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, explores the world of Shakespeare and his audience through twenty objects from that turbulent period. Mondays to Fridays 1.45pm; 7.45pm on BBC Radio 4 visit Homepage

The Sacred Modernist: Josef Albers (1888-1976)

The Sacred Modernist: Josef Albers as a Catholic Artist


Curated by Nicholas Fox Weber until 8 July 2012 at the Glucksman Gallery, Cork


Visit exhibition site The Sacred Modernist


Josef Albers, one of the most influential artist-educators of the twentieth century, was a member of the Bauhaus group in Germany during the 1920s. In 1933 he came to the United States, where he taught at Black Mountain College for sixteen years. In 1950 he joined the faculty at Yale University as chairman of the Department of Design. The recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, Albers was the first living artist ever to be given a solo retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Josef Albers's Interaction of Colour is a masterwork in twentieth-century art education. Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this timeless book presents Albers's unique ideas of colour experimentation in a way that is valuable to specialists as well as to a larger audience. Originally published by Yale University Press in 1963 as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates, the publication first appeared in paperback in 1971, featuring ten representative colour studies chosen by Albers. The paperback has remained in print ever since and is one of the most influential resources on color for countless readers.

Albers's work represents a transition between traditional European art and the new American art. It incorporated European influences from the constructivists and the Bauhaus movement, and its intensity and smallness of scale were typically European. But his influence fell heavily on American artists of the late 1950s and the 1960s. Abstract painters drew on his use of patterns and intense colors, while Op 
artists and conceptual artists further explored his interest in perception.

Sean Scully, like Albers, sees his art as imbued with an elemental spirituality.

  

Art History at Adult Continuing Education

Reserve your place on European Art History certificate and diploma programmes.

Links to new courses will be posted as soon as booking is open.

Introducing Short Courses: The Culture of the Big House

The Culture of the Big House is one of over 70 short courses offered by the Centre for Adult Continuing Education.This year, to mark its growing popularity, the Centre, in association with the Irish Heritage Trust, located the course in Fota House and Garden, Co Cork. As a new setting of the course, Fota House has proved highly successful in terms of overall student experience and learning. The course attracted over 20 participants and the lecturing staff is drawn from the Centre for Adult Continuing Education, the School of English and the School of History, UCC. The Centre plans to extend its relationship with the Trust in developing future educational opportunities in this wonderful venue.

Louis Le Brocquy (1916-2012) Remembered

Louis le Broquy's seminal painting A Family is one of the most important Irish paintings of the 20th Century. It's also one of ten paintings shortlisted for the Ireland's Favourite Painting campaign. For more information about the painting, and to see the other works on the shortlist, visit MASTERPIECE. And don't forget to vote!

ART HISTORY ALUMNI AND FRIENDS TOUR EDINBURGH

Twenty-eight CACE students of art history successfully took part in a three-day study tour of Edinburgh, 20-23 April. It marked the climax of a successful short course on Masterpieces from Scottish Collections hosted by CACE in partnership with Cork City Library. The tour, led by James Cronin, focused on making connections between the arts and culture of the city of Edinburgh. Highlights included visits to the National Gallery of Scotland, Writers’ Museum, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Dundas House, Canongate Kirkyard, Holyrood Palace, Old Calton Cemetery, and Calton Hill. A highlight for the group was the Sunday morning service in St. Giles Cathedral attended by the Lord Provost and Council of Edinburgh. The tour explored connections between objects, people and places associated with the culture of the Scottish Enlightenment. For an example, students visited the Portrait Gallery to study Henry Raeburn's portrait of the geologist, James Hutton, and then toured the Salisbury crags near Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh. Participants enjoyed seeing connections made between different fields of knowledge. Dr Ivor McCarthy, retired from Geology at UCC, joined the tour and gave delightfully informed talks on the geology of the city and Hutton's experimental work on geology during the eighteenth century, which led to new insights into the history of the earth. Visiting the places the class had studied in lectures made the information that much more meaningful to them as a whole. Mrs Teresa MacCarthy commented, “It was a delight from beginning to end”.

Group photograph in Riddle's Close, Old Town, here Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932), University of Edinburgh, fostered adult education in Scotland.

Here are some visual highlights of the study tour (click on the image to enlarge)

The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh.

This monument was erected in memory of Scotland’s illustrious writer Sir Walter Scott who died in 1832. In 1836 an architectural competition was launched. The winning design was submitted by George Meikle Kemp. Construction was completed in 1846.

AddVictorian banking hall in the former Dundas House, designed by William Chambers, now a Bank of Scotland. Dundas House, completed in 1774 and designed by William Chambers (1726-96) for Sir Laurence Dundas. The Royal Bank of Scotland bought the building in 1825 and it is now their registered office.

Detail of the new Scottish Parliament building on the Royal Mile, Edinburgh.
Designed by the Catalan architect Enric Miralles (1955-2000) and completed after his death by his wife and partner, Benedetta Taglibue. It opened three years later than planned, and cost more than 10 times the original budget of 40 million pounds!

 

Detail of the doors of the Queen's Picture Gallery at Holyrood Palace.

Note the rampant lion set against a silhouette of Edinburgh, spanning the Royal Mile from the Castle to the Palace (below).

Old Calton Cemetery

The tomb of Scottish Enlightment philosopher David Hume in the background. Headstone to the eighteenth century historical painter, David Allan, is in the foreground.

David Hume (1711-76). Hume’s chief philosophical work, the Treatise of Human Nature, was written while he was living in France during the years 1734-37. The first two volumes were published in 1739, the third in 1740, but went largely unnoticed. In 1744 he made an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a professorship at Edinburgh. Today, he is regarded a major figure of the “Scottish Enlightenment” and his writings were to influence the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. His tomb was designed by Robert Adam.

Calton Hill, crowned by monuments that led Edinburgh to become known as “the Athens of the North”.

Dr Ivor McCarthy talks about the role of James Hutton on the development of geology during the eighteenth century. Salisbury Crags with Arthur’s Seat loom in the background. It was here that Hutton made his breakthrough studies in the formulation of the theory of geological "deep time".

Detail of Edinburgh's New Town, laid out durning the middle of the eighteenth century.

Edinburgh's New Town is not that new. Built in the mid-to-late 18th Century, in response to overcrowding in what is now known as the Old Town, Edinburgh's New Town is a marvel of urban planning, combining elegant architecture with spacious and comfortable housing. New Town buildings are typically of a neo-classical style sometimes even with grandiose, Grecian pillars outside and tall ceilings and decorative friezes and trimmings inside. The interiors of most New Town residences have been modernised as flats and office spaces. Even the mews buildings, that once housed servants and stables, are considered desirable properties. However, the original character of the Georgian era New Town, with its cobbled roads, pillars, and sandstone block facades is preserved today thanks to building codes that stipulate even the wrought iron railings must be painted a specific colour - black. These New Town residences were built along an integrated and harmonious plan, with residences set near pleasant communal gardens and attractive views.

 

Old Town, Edinburgh.


Edinburgh’s Old Town has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings. One end is closed by the castle and the main artery The High Street (or the Royal Mile) leads away from it; minor streets (called closes or wynds) bud off the main spine in a herringbone pattern. Large squares mark the location of markets or surround major public buildings such as St Giles Cathedral and the Law Courts. Other notable places of interest nearby include the Royal Museum of Scotland, Surgeons' Hall, the Royal Festival Theatre, and the University of Edinburgh. The street layout, typical of the old quarters of many northern European cities, is made especially picturesque in Edinburgh, where the castle perches on top of a rocky crag, the remnants of a dormant volcano, and the main street runs down the crest of a ridge from it.