From AHLU to Cambridge: Former Student Lily Owens Reflects on our “Widening Access to Art History” Workshop

Last month, while working as a conference assistant for the Association for Art History Annual Conference in Cambridge, I had the opportunity to attend Art History Link-Up’s workshop: Widening Access to Art History: Connecting Schools and Higher Education. The workshop took the format of an open discussion session, where participants split into groups to brainstorm some ideas before feeding back to their peers. We discussed the kind of questions and challenges that might arise when campaigning for widening access changes at institutional level: from diversifying course option papers, to implementing a wider variety of examination methods.

Funnily enough, the session format reminded me of my experience of the AHLU A-level course classes. It just so happened that another conference assistant in attendance of the session was also an AHLU alumna now studying at Cambridge. Like AHLU classes, the session felt more like a collaborative effort, where the perspective of academics, teaching professionals and students are all treated with equal validity.

What emerged from my discussion with Ludo Amory (Education & Outreach Officer at AHLU) and Catherine Grant (Lecturer & Vice-Dean for Education at The Courtauld Institute) was the fact that there is both a shared desire for change and a mutual appreciation of the challenges that higher education faces today. I often find that when young people are left out of the conversation, their frustration arises not just from a lack of this change, but from never being given the platform to contribute to this change in the first place.

AHLU’s workshop offered the opportunity to foster a discussion between people at different stages of their academic journey. I believe this is a core strength of AHLU’s practice. In speaking with Ludo - also a Cambridge graduate - I discovered that groups like Cambridge’s Decolonise Art History Society had originally been quite instrumental in pushing for content diversification and decolonisation at the university. However, between the busy student schedule and the three-year university cycle, momentum can sometimes fizzle out when a generation of students graduate. Reflecting on this, I am reminded that facilitating a continuous intergenerational dialogue is a necessity for maintaining this momentum.

Creating these long-term changes comes with its challenges at professional level as well. As higher education attempts to move forward, our global and economic condition changes too. The advent of AI and its rapidly increasing effect on education and the job market is quickly inviting us to re-assess which skills young people most need to cultivate. Whether we are new entrants into the job market, or already well-established in our fields, the situation is shifting. In an increasingly image-saturated world, Art History sits at the core of this. To me, the dynamism and interdisciplinarity of Art History can offer a strong foundation from which to develop the skills suited to today’s world. So, the question is: how can Higher Education respond with learning and assessment formats that cater to this? More so, how can we do this by taking advantage of the diverse set of minds put to the task?

AHLU’s workshop was an insightful experience, and one that began to narrow down the important questions. My key takeaway is that collaboration across universities, year groups and professional levels might be one strategy to make more use of.‍

‍Lily Owens

Lily Owens is a final year undergraduate studying History of Art at Christ’s College, University of Cambridge with a particular interest in aesthetics, philosophy of art and intellectual history. They are a former student of AHLU’s Art History A-level and EPQ Programme (2022–2024). As an undergraduate they founded Christ's College Art Collective, a youth-led interdisciplinary arts programme aimed at making art and culture accessible Cambridge-wide. Lily also works as a freelance photographer specialising in dance and theatre: https://www.lilyowens.co.uk/.

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