Art History: How To Look At Ruins: Interpreting Ruined Sites in Britain and Beyond

Combining aesthetics with history, this 5-week series of seminars offers a practical and appreciative exploration of looking at ruins.

It will introduce the variety of types of ruined monuments and buildings found in Britain and further afield. It will give you a 'road map' for thinking through what you are looking at and the ways in which it can be understood and mentally reconstructed. It will also examine how ruins are preserved, presented and celebrated in heritage and culture. 

This is a seminar-style course which combines information sharing, group discussion and debate and the close study of individual works and related historical sources and academic writings. It is led by a small team of experience tutors: Miriam Gill, David Antill and Ellie Pridgeon.

The course will run on Wednesday afternoons, 1-3pm, for five weeks, starting on Wednesday 11 June and ending on 9 July 2025.

Participants must be aged 18+. No prior knowledge of art history or study experience is required.

Please ensure that you agree to our updated Terms & Conditions before booking as courses/workshops are non-refundable in some circumstances.

We aim to make all our sessions as accessible as possible and carers/PAs are very welcome – just remember to book their free place when you book your session. If you'd like to talk to us in advance of booking or attending your sessions to discuss your access needs, our Box Office team is here to help! Email arts-centre@le.ac.uk, pop in or call 0116 252 2455, open 7 days a week.

We have four blue badge parking spaces outside Attenborough Arts Centre, plus double yellow line roadside parking very close to the building for blue badge holders for up to three hours if our parking spaces are occupied.

Free parking for all customers is available after 5pm on weekdays and all day at weekends in the University of Leicester car park next door to Attenborough Arts Centre on Lancaster Road. The closest public car park for parking at all other times is Victoria Park, 5-10 minutes walk from us.