Exciting new role for Dr Helen Jacobsen
Dr Helen Jacobsen, Tutor for the French courses on the MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors will be leaving us at the end of this term to concentrate on her new role as Curator of French 18th- century Decorative Arts at the Wallace Collection, one of the finest collections of French fine and decorative arts in the world. Helen played a key role in helping to set up the MA in 2009 and will be greatly missed by students and colleagues, however, she will continue to be closely involved in the French decorative arts teaching at the Wallace Collection and will work closely with Jeremy Howard, the Programme Director, as the Wallace Collection’s curator responsible for academic liaison with the University. We congratulate her most warmly on her recent appointment and wish her all the very best in her exciting new role.
New Lecturer in Art History (December 2011)
The Department is very pleased to welcome Dr Adriano Aymonino, who will be joining the University to head the new BA in Art History and Heritage Management. Dr Aymonino recently held postdoctoral fellowships at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art of Yale University in London and at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He was also head of research for the Commission for Looted Art in Europe. More about Dr Aymonino.
Country house visits (October 2011)
This year’s MA Decorative Arts Students spent the last week of October on campus exploring local country houses and enjoying the unseasonally balmy Indian summer. Among the highlights were a visit to the Chinese Dairy at Woburn (right) and a tour of the house and gardens at Stowe, where they were shown 
the recent restoration work that has been carried out on the interiors by the Stowe House Preservation Trust and paid homage to Venus in the Vanbrugh Rotonda (left).
Art History students in Florence (29 October 2011)
Buckingham’s first students on the new Art History and Heritage Management BA having been spending their initial term in Florence. The photo shows them with Michael Liversidge, Florence Programme Director, enjoying a typical Florentine autumn sunset.
Public lecture by Dr Nicola Smith (6 September 2011)
In “Breaking the rules: Michelangelo as architect”, Nichola Smith showed how Michelangelo departed from classical reliance on the square and the circle, using the oval and the trapezium as the basis of architectural designs in Rome and Florence. Non-functioning columns, blank walls and overlapping pediments were among the ways in which his buildings surprised the viewer by breaking traditional rules. His influence spread so quickly that Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire, begun c.1570, was closely modeled on his new design for the Capitoline in Rome.
Art History alumni party (27 July 2011)
The Art History alumni party at Colnaghi’s, 15 Old Bond Street, was attended by nearly a hundred staff and former students, including the Director and Director-designate of the Wallace Collection and representatives from the British Institute in Florence. The photo shows Jeremy Howard making his speech of welcome.
