About us
The School of Arts and Communication Design brings together three departments with strong reputations for innovation in research, teaching, and enterprise. The School comprises three departments:
Art
Art is a new department comprising the former long established departments of Fine Art and History of Art. We have a shared history with our origins in the Reading School of Art, established in 1860 the founding school of the present university. We have developed a distinctive approach to Art through a combination of practice, theory and history. All of the academic staff are actively engaged as artists, researchers, historians and curators. Our special strengths lie in exhibition history and curatorial practice, in artists writing and in theoretical and historical approaches to art. Our research has been recognised for its international excellence and our aim is to develop both a theoretical and practice-based enquiry of art within an academically stimulating environment. We offer programmes of study at BA and MA levels and we have a thriving postgraduate research community. Our research led teaching provides a community of shared learning, where students can progress their study enhanced with opportunities to study abroad and combine degree programme.
- Visit the Art website for further information.
Film, Theatre & Television
The Department of Film, Theatre & Television is a lively and creative department which has been leading its field for over four decades. It pioneered the teaching of film studies in Britain and has an established reputation in theatre and television. Film, Theatre & Television is very proud of the excellence of its teaching and research and this is reflected in its high profile in nationwide assessments. In the most recent Teaching Quality Assessment the Department scored the maximum 24 out of 24 and it is regularly among the top departments in league tables which rank performing arts courses. The Department's research output was graded 5 on a scale from 1 to 5* and departmental staff are internationally renowned experts in their fields.
- Visit the Film, Theatre & Television website for further information.
Typography & Graphic Communication
For more than thirty years, the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication has been the only one of its kind in a British university. We have developed a unique approach to the subject through a combination of practice, theory and history. Our special strengths lie in editorial and information design, in electronic publishing and in the history of printing and letterforms. Each of these is represented in our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, in the research interests of our members of staff and in works published by the Department, such as Typography Papers. We also have a Design & Print Unit that not only provides our students with a 'laboratory' of design for print, but also acts as a printing facility for the University.
- Visit the Typography & Graphic Communication website for further information.