Graduate Summer Seminar

The Graduate Summer Seminar is a lively, 12-day programme of activities and events, in which the participants take a leading role. It offers the opportunity for art historians and art students to learn from each other, and for UK-based students to connect with their Yale-based peers and with other members of the UK’s arts community.

It provides a forum for stimulating discussion and debate on a chosen theme which will be different every year and that is designed to be of interest to both art students and art history students. The theme is relevant to both historic and contemporary art, and is investigated through the prism of British artistic and architectural practice. Finally, the seminar brings together the creative and intellectual energy of all the participating institutions and enables areas of common interest to be developed.

As well as the Paul Mellon Centre, each year the summer school is co-organised by the following partner institutions: the Yale Art School, the Yale Art History Department and the Yale Center for British Art. The summer school will also see the PMC working with a London-based partner institution, and co-hosting the event with them.

Structure

The school runs for two weeks in July with sessions scheduled from Monday to Friday during this period. The weekdays are full days, with at least four evening events. You can expect the following types of events. 

• A series of day-long workshops, in which the participants will work with a number of artistic and cultural collectives
• A series of talks by, and conversations with, art historians, curators, critics and artists
• Visits to exhibitions, artists’ studios, archives, and arts organisations

The emphasis is on generating creative and collaborative forms of analysis and exchange on the part of the participants. Accordingly, the last part of the programme is devoted to sessions in which the participants present their reflections and responses – artistic and scholarly – to the chosen theme, and to the materials, events, and ideas they have encountered. These sessions may provide the basis for future outputs – publications, for example – which would offer a permanent expression of the work done in the summer school.

Eligibility

The summer school is open to current graduate students enrolled at the Yale School of Art and in the PhD programme at the Yale History of Art Department, and to 4 PhD students based in the UK.

There are a total of 20 places on available on the seminar. Four PhD students based in the UK, eight MFA students from the Yale School of Art; eight PhD students from the Yale History of Art Department.

In addition, the seminar will welcome approximately four members of the partner institution’s wider community.

Travel and Housing

Participants’ travel and accommodation costs, and the costs of four evening social events, are covered as part of the course. The logistical arrangements are co-ordinated by Nermin Abdulla, Education Programme Manager at the PMC.