History of Art is a fantastic degree to do at Cambridge
we are surrounded by phenomenal buildings and works of art
and Pembroke is a particularly good college.
It is very supportive of art historians,
we have a really vibrant community of art historians
both undergraduates and graduate students;
we have a pretty large number of graduates in the subject.
We're very close to the Fitzwilliam Museum
it's minutes away, you can tumble out of bed and be there five minutes later.
We're also very close to the department
and more than that, Pembroke is
a lively community, that's very proud of its culture
which includes its visual culture.
We have, in the Chapel,
the first building designed by Sir Christopher Wren
who went on to build St Paul's cathedral
we have some fabulous portraits
some of them in the hall but some scattered around the College,
and we've also got a brilliant section in the library.
We're one of the strongest college libraries in History of Art
and History of Art is one of very few subjects to have its own room
in Pembroke library,
primarily because of a phenomenal donation of books,
a couple of years ago
when we got a couple of thousand books
from one of our alumni.
So it really is a lovely place to study the subject.
Applications! We welcome applications
from any student from any walk of life
you do not have to have studied art history before.
People come and apply with a whole range of different subjects
because the great thing about history of art,
and architecture I should say,
is nothing is irrelevant.
If you've studied maths that can be fantastically useful
in understanding how architects work.
If you've studied biology it can be brilliant
when you're beginning to look at animal paintings
or anatomy, or the way in which
the figurative tradition has developed.
So please don't worry about what you're bringing to the party,
we're interested in everything you've studied,
and what we're most keen to see
is your aptitude for the subject.
And the way we think about that is
do you really understand the ambition
of history of art and architecture,
do you see what the discipline is trying to do?
Do you have good visual understanding,
are you visually literate?
Can you look at a painting and even if you know nothing about it
can you think about it in an intelligent and inquisitive way?
The application process involves
filling in the necessary forms
and submitting a couple of essays so we can see how you write.
It doesn't matter what they're on.
It's simply so that we can see
you've got the ability to write extensively.
History of art is a very essay-based subject
you will do at least one essay a week,
they're about 2000 words long
but it varies.
Sometimes you'll be doing two essays a week when you're doing two courses at the same time.
So we need to know that you can write well
You'll then have an interview
well, two actually,
one specialist interview
probably in here,
we try very much to put you at your ease
so you can talk to us as best you can,
about why this is the right subject for you
and the right course for you
and it will involve probably me,
with one other art historian
asking you questions about
your understanding of the excitement of art history,
about how we might consider
historical and social and political factors
in studying the subject,
about artists you like,
come and tell us about them,
it doesn't matter what period or what context,
it can be somebody from your local town.
We're interested to see how you engage
with the practice of artists,
and by that I mean sculptors, painters, decorative artists, architects.
We might be interested in an exhibition you've seen,
what impact it made on you, why it made that impact,
why you are curious about that impact.
There'll also be a second interview
with another Fellow in Pembroke,
possibly the admissions Tutor
or one other Fellow,
and that again, it will be in a room not unlike this
and it will involve more questioning
to try and ascertain
how you're - what your intellectual curiosity is.
How you might debate something.
So while those questions might be slightly less specialist,
they still will be geared toward your academic profile.
