Plea To Save Art History A-level

The AQA board announced last week that it would not offer the art history A-level to new students after this year.

19:53 24 October 2016

Hundreds of academics have signed an open later to AQA exam board after it announced that it will no longer offer the art history A-level to new students after this year.

 

The letter reads: "As AQA is the only exam board to currently offer the art history qualification, the decision will result in a subject of profound social, cultural and economic importance disappearing from the UK A-level landscape,"

 

"By denying young people access to the study of art history at a vital juncture in their lives, the AQA decision will actively discourage the next generation from pursuing careers in the arts and place current successes in real danger."

 

The letter was signed by more than 220 academics including leading members of university faculties, museums and galleries in the UK and overseas. These include senior vice-president of Sotheby’s New York, Oxford University’s Prof Craig Clunas, Christina Prescott-Walker, and Professor Julian Stallabrass of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

 

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for AQA said: "We wanted to continue with history of art, and the best experts in the country have tried to produce assessments that meet the requirements and can also be accurately marked and graded, but the risks are too high,"

 

"We understand the disappointment of the subject community and, having tried for the past year to make the subject work at A-level, regret that we weren't able to achieve this."