FULBRIGHT AWARDS

Courtauld Institute of Art

LogoThe Courtauld Institute of Art, founded in 1932 and based in Somerset House, is one of the world’s leading centres for the study of the history and conservation of art and architecture, with a strong international reputation. Its Gallery houses one of Britain’s best-loved art collections. 

In August 2002, The Courtauld was separately incorporated as a self-governing College of the University of London, with its own Governing Board. Prior to this, it functioned as an Institute directly run by the University. The Courtauld continues to award University of London degrees, but as an independent College is responsible for its own governance, academic programmes and financial viability. The Director of The Courtauld is Professor Deborah Swallow who reports to the Governing Board. The Chairman is Nicholas Ferguson.

The Courtauld has some 400 students at any one time, and its alumni are at the helm of many major arts and educational institutions and are employed throughout the arts world internationally. Degree programmes on offer include a BA, Graduate Diploma and MA in the History of Art; a Postgraduate Diploma in the Conservation of Easel Paintings; an MA in Painting Conservation (Wall Painting); an MA in Curating the Art Museum (new in 2007-08); and MPhil and PhD research degrees.

Facilities for students are exceptional, including outstanding libraries of books and images and the collections of paintings, drawings and prints, and sculpture and decorative arts. Courtauld teaching staff supervise research from Antiquity to the present, and the Research Forum offers access to visiting speakers from around the world.

Public lectures, short courses and lunchtime talks allow members of the public to share in the wealth of expertise at The Courtauld.

The Courtauld Gallery, open daily, is one of the finest small museums in the world. Its collection stretches from the early Renaissance into the 20th century and is particularly renowned for the unrivalled collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. The Gallery also holds an outstanding collection of drawings and prints and fine examples of sculpture and decorative arts.

Fast Facts

Life in London

An obvious advantage of choosing to be a student at The Courtauld is our proximity to a host of additional resources for research and study. Somerset House is in the heart of one of the most vibrant cities in the world, London. 

In addition to outstanding libraries, archives and galleries, the city offers students limitless opportunities to experience a range of cultural and leisure activities. The Institute is less than a mile from the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. The Courtauld is also close to a huge variety of other major cultural institutions, as well as theatres, cinemas, clubs and the West End. We are just across the river from the National Theatre, the Southbank complex and Tate Modern. The treasures of the British Museum are a twenty minute walk away and the South Kensington museums and Whitechapel Art Gallery are easily reached by Underground.

Completed in 1780, Somerset House, where The Courtauld is based, is one of the most important neo-Classical buildings in England. From the outside it is elegant and formal, but inside the Institute you will discover a small, friendly organisation with all the advantages that brings in terms of contact with teachers and other students.

Somerset House is a very special place in which place to study. It has a long tradition of being involved in education and of making its spaces available to the public. Under George III, its rooms housed the Royal Societies and Academy of Art. Other blocks of the complex were used for many years by the Public Records Office to house the Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The twenty-first-century public is welcomed into the courtyard. In Spring and Summer the fountains that fill the central area provide a spectacular setting for lunch. Children and adults alike play in the arches of water right in the middle of central London! In the Winter the courtyard is covered over and a skating rink appears along with a café-bar and brightly-lit Christmas tree that towers over the skaters.

The Courtauld is also part of the wider University of London community. This means our students enjoy access to a broad range of academic and social facilities provided by the University and its other colleges. Students have access to sports facilities, clubs and societies, housing and legal advice, and some seventeen other Student Unions in addition to the University of London Union. We currently have residential accommodation for 26 students within a very short distance of The Courtauld and there are expectations that this will increase considerably for 2010.