NEW: Art History Unpacked

Course

Start	Wednesday 23rd September 2026
Time	15:45 - 17:30
Tutor	Maria Bonner (BN (Hons) MA PGCE)
Cost	£99.00
Room	Main Hall
THIS COURSE IS FULLY BOOKED
Availability	11/22 Places

Course Description
We all know the version of art history we were taught — the fixed list of masterpieces, the handful of celebrated names - but the real story is far richer, stranger and more human than that. This course asks the question that changes everything: why? Why this subject, these materials, this moment? Art is never created in a vacuum, and understanding it means understanding the lives and worlds that produced it. We roam freely across themes — gender, sexuality, the canon, the overlooked and the iconic — with debate, discussion and laughter guaranteed. No prior knowledge needed. Just curiosity. Pull up a chair — things are about to get interesting.
Your Tutor
Maria Bonner has been teaching art history with a passion for many years. Trained at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she completed both her BA (Joint Hons) in Art/ Art History and her MA in Twentieth Century Art. She has taught across a wide range of institutions at both FE and HE level, from schools and sixth form colleges to universities and prisons, including delivering global online classes during Covid. A writer, talker and maker of art, Maria brings a holistic approach that embraces art from a range of perspectives to demystify a very broad subject in an accessible and inclusive way. Maria's approach is rooted in a simple but deeply held conviction: that art belongs to everyone, and that the best way to understand it is to ask awkward questions. Who made this, and why? What was happening in their world? Whose stories have been left out of the official version, and what happens when we put them back in? Her teaching draws on the full range of critical lenses - gender, sexuality, class, identity and culture - to reveal an art history that is messier, more contested and far more exciting than the one most of us were taught. Expect lively discussion, debate and more than a few moments where the conversation takes on a life of its own. Maria believes that your instincts, your questions and your own experience of looking at art are not just welcome in the room — they are essential.

Course Description

We all know the version of art history we were taught — the fixed list of masterpieces, the handful of celebrated names - but the real story is far richer, stranger and more human than that. This course asks the question that changes everything: why? Why this subject, these materials, this moment? Art is never created in a vacuum, and understanding it means understanding the lives and worlds that produced it. We roam freely across themes — gender, sexuality, the canon, the overlooked and the iconic — with debate, discussion and laughter guaranteed.

No prior knowledge needed. Just curiosity. Pull up a chair — things are about to get interesting.

Your Tutor

Maria Bonner has been teaching art history with a passion for many years. Trained at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she completed both her BA (Joint Hons) in Art/ Art History and her MA in Twentieth Century Art. She has taught across a wide range of institutions at both FE and HE level, from schools and sixth form colleges to universities and prisons, including delivering global online classes during Covid. A writer, talker and maker of art, Maria brings a holistic approach that embraces art from a range of perspectives to demystify a very broad subject in an accessible and inclusive way.

Maria's approach is rooted in a simple but deeply held conviction: that art belongs to everyone, and that the best way to understand it is to ask awkward questions. Who made this, and why? What was happening in their world? Whose stories have been left out of the official version, and what happens when we put them back in? Her teaching draws on the full range of critical lenses - gender, sexuality, class, identity and culture - to reveal an art history that is messier, more contested and far more exciting than the one most of us were taught.

Expect lively discussion, debate and more than a few moments where the conversation takes on a life of its own. Maria believes that your instincts, your questions and your own experience of looking at art are not just welcome in the room — they are essential.