Art, Ideas & Theory
Art History Courses Online & In London
Looking to advance your art historical knowledge into academic practice? Or, maybe you would like to explore art through broader concepts like feminism or aesthetics? Art theory allows us to think about art thematically, across time and place. Join us for one of our classes online, in the classroom or in galleries, out and about in London.
Online, classroom-based and gallery-based art history courses
Many of our courses are also offered online, giving you the freedom to study from anywhere you need to be. We also offer our classes in-person at our Central London location and at many galleries and museums in and around London. Use the Location filters on this page to choose your preferred delivery method. See our guide to online learning for more information about our live online courses.
Learn from expert tutors
At City Lit we are proud of the expertise of our tutors who are all professional art historians working actively in museums, galleries, research and writing, universities and auction houses. As experts in the field, they are able to provide you with the support and guidance you need to develop your art historical knowledge. As teachers they provide student-focused education, helping students achieve their art historical goals, both the personal and the professional.
- Study day: Modern art and dance – expressions, representations and symbols
Course start date: Sun 25 Jan 2026Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Caroline LevisseThis study-day explores how modern painters and sculptors engaged with dance as subject and symbol. From Matisse and Nolde to the sculptor Gaudier-Brzeska, we will see how dance expressed some key values of the avant-garde spirit, such as freedom.
Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Study day: Fakes, forgeries and the experience of art Course start date: Sun 1 Feb 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayWhat gives an artwork get its value? Investigate the very fine boundary between the real and the fake and who makes the call by looking at various interpretations of authenticity.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Friday lates: Magical modernism – modern art and the occult Course start date: Fri 27 Feb 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierDiscover Modern Art’s secret history: a mysterious melting-pot of mystic auras, magical colour theories, trances, alchemy and the spirit-physics of the 4th-dimension, hiding beneath the familiar stories of science, reason and industry.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Friday lates: Art in Colonial Australia, painting natural history Course start date: Fri 13 Mar 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Ben PollittExplore the period of intense artistic activity in the early years of Colonial Australia (c. 1788–1800). We will see how both convicts and military personnel produced hundreds of images depicting the remarkable natural history that they found in the settlement.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Friday lates: Art and maps Course start date: Fri 27 Mar 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierMaps have a long and fascinating history, yet it was really the 20th Century that saw them come alive as an artistic medium, as artists turned to them to explore their place in a disoriented world. Discover the many ways artists have worked with maps, from Surrealism through to Digital Media.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Ways into advanced art history: research & writing Course start date: Tue 14 Apr 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayDevelop a greater understanding of art history and how to analyse the cultural meaning of an artwork by going in-depth with the ideas of prominent art historians. This course is meant to cultivate your personal practice of art history through small, guided research and writing projects.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - Art and critical theory: vision and gaze Course start date: Wed 22 Apr 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Irina ChkhaidzeExplore the role of critical theory within the field of art history, and learn new ways of thinking about art by focusing on the topics of vision and gaze.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - Friday lates: Poster art – print, pop and propaganda Course start date: Fri 24 Apr 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierGet a snapshot of the eye-catching and colourful world of poster art, from Belle Époque decadence to Avant-Garde dynamism; from Art Nouveau to Atelier Populaire, and the everyday glamour of Pop.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Friday lates: psychogeography: the art of getting lost Course start date: Fri 15 May 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierFrom pub crawls to punk rock, via comic books, action painting and Hegelian philosophy; hear the unlikely tale of the Situationists: international artist-revolutionaries who tried to change the world itself into a work of art.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Art and critical theory: feminism and post-colonialism Course start date: Thu 4 Jun 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Irina ChkhaidzeExplore the role of critical theory within the field of art history, and learn new ways of thinking about art by focusing on feminism, post-colonial theory and the notion of the death of the author.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - Friday Lates: Art beyond the human - spirits, ecologies, and A.I. Course start date: Fri 26 Jun 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierTo some, art is central to what makes us human, but artists have long engaged more-than-human agencies—spiritual, ecological, now digital. Surrealism appropriated spiritualist and indigenous traditions; Land Art made ecosystems co-authors. Today, as some talk of an ‘Anthropocene’, many artists turn their attention elsewhere. Did ancient hominids make art? Can birds, or even fish? And what about AI? Decentering the Human reshapes what art is—but are we ready?
Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Friday lates: Art and alchemy – from the ancient to today Course start date: Fri 23 Jan 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierDelve into a magical world of hidden secrets and bizarre symbolism as we distil the heady mix that is art and alchemy; from early manuscripts and renaissance paintings, to the surrealists and contemporary art.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Ways into advanced art history: historiography Course start date: Tue 27 Jan 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayDevelop a greater understanding of art history and how to analyse the cultural meaning of an artwork by going in-depth with the ideas of prominent art historians. This course looks at the history of art history – the history of interpretation.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00
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