Are you inspired to learn more about the arts and design? Try taking a course with the OU.

An Introduction to the Humanities
You will get from this course a lively and varied grounding in the eight disciplines in the Arts Faculty: art history, literature, music, philosophy, classical studies, history, religious studies and history of science. The subjects are introduced in attractive case studies combined with multidisciplinary sections on the French Revolution and the 1960s. The course will help you to express yourself more clearly and develop the reading, analysis and interpretation skills you need before moving on to more specialized courses at Level 2. It is not necessary to have studied in this area before.

Art and its Histories
This introduction to art history will interest students who are new to the discipline and those who have already studied in this area. The six course books, covering the period from the Renaissance to the present day, explore the changing intellectual traditions, institutions, social practices and issues of taste governing artistic values, drawing on the different approaches that characterize recent art history. The book titles reflect the themes round which the course is structured: Academies, Museums and the canons of art, The changing status of the artist, Gender and art, The challenge of the avant-garde, Views of difference: Different views of art, Contemporary cultures of display.

Art of the Twentieth Century
The course acquaints students with the fundamental changes that have taken place in the concepts and practices of art during the 20th Century. You are introduced to different types of art, ranging from work in traditional media such as painting and sculpture to contemporary videos and installations. You will be asked to engage with a variety of critical and theoretical interpretations of art. Central topics in the course include the relation of the modernist mainstream to new ‘post-modernist' standpoints, the status of the art object, the role of gender and identity, and the place of a predominantly European tradition in an increasingly globalized culture.

Design and Designing
This course provides an introduction to the products and practices of today's international design world. It explores specialist contributions from fields such as product design, engineering design, architecture, and communication design. There are six Blocks to the course. Broadly, Block One introduces you to the phenomena of design and designing; Block Two examines how companies formulate design plans including market research; Block Three explores creativity in design; and Blocks Four and Five investigate the conversion of design ideas into tangible and successful products, including the influence of new materials and manufacturing techniques, issues of sustainability and the significance of landmark products of the past. Block Six allows the identification of both common and unique qualities in the principles and practices of modern designing via a series of case studies.

The Victoria and Albert Museum Art Deco website features information and articles from a former exhibition celebrating the most glamourous and popular style of the twentieth century.Their website features some fantastic images from the period plus a virtual tour of the exhibition and fun interactive quiz to test your knowledge.