If I do a Art History degree, what employment area can I consider?

[ranting]

Am a bit ahead of myself here, still doing the intro course but, am really enjoying the Art topic. Still undecided whether to do English lit/lang, History or Art History.

But I need an idea of the kind of options I can have with Art History, so any advice, gratefully appreciated.

[ShowOfHands]

Lots of museum type roles. I worked in the research dept of an arts centre and museum and all curators/guides/buyers/lecturers on the museum side were Art History graduates.

[ranting]

Thank you for that, that's pretty close to what I was thinking, I need to envisage what I want to do in 6 years time (mild panic ensues).

Would the fact that I am studying be enough to get some sort of job in that sort of environment, for the experience?

[ShowOfHands]

Obviously I can only speak for where I worked. Several of the guides were students (some of them did an extra unit preparing them to work as guides) and others worked in the Arts library part time or did some assistant/research work for the lecturers.

Competition fairly fierce though.

[ShowOfHands]

And more MA students than BA working as guides.

[ranting]

Right, that's helpful, it's (as you rightly guessed) BA, not MA. So that probably rules that out, think I'm going to have to trawl the OU careers board. It's all a million miles away from the work I'm currently doing.

[JustCallMeGoat]

fairly cliquey (sp?) world imo. there are also lots of random careers in insurance, or you could go into conservation.

do the degree because you will enjoy it not becuase it is a career choice.

[ranting]

Well the prime reason was for interest but, I don't see why I shouldn't use it at some point. If I've got to work until I'm 70, it might as well be bearable.

Just realised I used a instead of an in the title (fodder for the pedants).

Insurance , think I'll give that one a miss.

[JustCallMeGoat]

well i used insurance cos someone i know visits the homes of wealthy folk and assess sneers at their belongings.

if you think you will get something out of the degree a career path will open somehow.

[fizzpops]

I have an Art History/ Design History degree and I work in a museum but it is a difficult field to get into, not great pay and to get a paid job you usually need a reasonable amount of voluntary experience and possibly a Masters degree - I have one in Museum Studies.

[arthistoricallondon]

Not a steady income, but great if you have children still at home: lecturing for adult leisure courses, or guided museum visits!

[rightsaidfrederickII]

70% of graduate jobs accept people with a degree in any subject - it's your work experience and what you've done alongside your degree that's important there. Your career doesn't have to relate directly to the degree subject you did, even if the career requires a degree. So, a more pertinent question question would be what do you want to do career wise? Unless you want to do something that requires a very specific degree, such as nursing or architecture, then you almost certainly can.

The Courtauld is probably the best place to study Art History in the country... here are where some of their alumni have gone courtauld.ac.uk/alumni/who-we-are