Art History Link-Up, a registered charity, no. 1172792

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Art History Link-Up, a registered charity, no. 1172792

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Art History Link-Up is a registered charity. We offer free Art History A level + EPQ courses for state supported students.

This programme from Art History Link-Up aims to reach more state school students with a fast-track Art History A level and EPQ that offers all the benefits of the subject combined with first-hand experience of the art being studied.

23/10/2026

This Saturday, 24 October, our Art History for Everyone classes will be running entirely online, before we break for half term.

A huge thank you to our office and teaching teams for all their support and hard work as we reach the end of our first half term. ✨

Find out more about our free Art History A Level and EPQ Saturday courses for state school students, at the Courtauld, Somerset House and online, on our website via the link in our bio.

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Bea Dallas .alumni.official Courtauld Courtauld Research Forum

20/10/2026

Two and a half years ago, AHLU supporter and art historian Hattie Bennett (née Parry Williams) sadly died of cancer. She asked friends and family to make donations to AHLU in her memory. Their generosity funded a free, in-person Art History A Level and EPQ class at the Courtauld for almost an entire year. Now Hattie’s friends and family are fundraising for AHLU again, to mark Hattie’s birthday month of October, with a sponsored Venice Marathon on 24 October. The organisers write, “donations in Hattie’s name have already helped a number of young people who love Art History, just as Hattie did, and we want to continue her legacy.” It won’t be easy - there are a lot of bridges - please do consider supporting this very special initiative. Link in bio and: https://www.gofundme.com/f/hattie-bennett-fundraiser-venice-marathon

18/10/2026

A huge thank you to our wonderful alumni, who were the stars of our tenth anniversary celebration and campaign launch at Spencer House on 6 October ✨

Thirteen AHLU alumni, representing every year of our first decade, including former students now part of our teaching team, acted as expert guides throughout the evening. They welcomed around 100 guests, including funders, partners and stakeholders, and brought Spencer House’s extraordinary rooms and collection to life, sharing their knowledge and their own stories of how Art History has shaped their lives.

Their confidence, insight and passion were the best possible demonstration of what AHLU is all about. Many guests told us that meeting them was the highlight of the night.

Thank you also to our amazing team, who prepared and supported our guides so well and made the evening run so smoothly.

And to all our students, past, present and future: this celebration is yours. Here’s to the next ten years of Art History for everyone 💜

🔗 Watch our anniversary film, explore our anniversary publication and read more about the evening on our blog, all via the link in our bio.

📸 Art History Link-Up / Hikaru Funnell Spencer House .alumni.official

12/10/2026

AHLU in the press ✨

We’re delighted to feature in the first issue of Closer Look, the Courtauld’s beautiful new annual members’ magazine, in its ‘Collaborations’ section, as we celebrate our tenth anniversary.

Edited by writer and curator Hettie Judah, Closer Look brings together interviews, essays, poetry and perspectives from across the Courtauld Gallery and Institute, all “united by the act of looking”.

Huge thanks to the Courtauld, which has hosted our Art History for Everyone courses at Somerset House since September 2022, for its ongoing support and partnership, and to Hettie for including us.

Courtauld Courtauld Research Forum .alumni.official

07/10/2026

Thrilled to launch AHLU’s 10th anniversary film: two minute version here, link in bio for 5 minute one. Thank you to all our interviewees, especially Dame Hannah Rothschild, Prof Mark Hallett and our students, to Waddesdon Manor and the Courtauld, and Chocolate Films and the Lovington Foundation. .rothschild .alumni.official

05/10/2026

Happy World Teachers’ Day! 🎨

Here are our students at the National Gallery in 2022, as we were all finding our way back into galleries after the pandemic, before Velázquez’s ‘Philip IV of Spain in Brown and Silver’.

Learning to look slowly and closely, and to ask what a work of art is telling us and how, is at the heart of what our teachers do every week. It’s also what Art UK’sVisual Literacy Week, 5–11 October, is all about.

Thank you to every teacher who has helped a young person see the world differently, and to AHLU’s dedicated teaching team in particular.

📷 National Gallery .alumni.official

03/10/2026

Wonderful times at Spencer House with some of our alumni, drawn from across ten years of our free accredited Art History courses for state school students, receiving inspiring training and guidance from curator Vicky Wilson as part of our anniversary preparations. Each student was given an AHLU themed notebook, designed by Dennis Studio: Branding & Design and generously donated by our trustee and Papier.

We are so gratefuPapiervery funder, partner, trustee, team member, volunteer and friend who has supported our students and our work to this milestone: thank you all.

📷 .alumni.official

25/09/2026

Tomorrow, Saturday 26 September, marks the start of our tenth academic year of free Art History for Everyone courses for state students. We can’t wait to welcome new and returning state school students to our Art History A Level and EPQ courses, online and at the Courtauld, Somerset House.

0ur very first cohort, at the Wallace Collection in 2016-17, taught by our founder and CEO Rose Aidin, is pictured here. That first course began just weeks before Art History A Level was withdrawn nationally, and our students became powerful evidence for why the subject had to be saved. It was reinstated within months.

A decade on, while Art History A Level is offered in far fewer than 1% of state schools, AHLU has worked with students from over 4% of UK state schools and over 16% of London state secondary schools. We’ve partnered with the Wallace Collection, the National Gallery, the Courtauld, Sir John Soane’s Museum and Waddesdon Manor, using world-class collections exactly as they were intended: for first-hand learning and education.

And our alumni are transforming the sector. AHLU students have studied Art History in almost every Russell Group Art History department in the UK, with alumni students in every undergraduate year group at the Courtauld for the last four years, in the University of Oxford’s Art History department for the last three years, and at every year in the University of Cambridge’s Art History department since 2020. This year alone, four AHLU alumni graduated from Cambridge’s Art History department, with four more just starting there.

None of it would be possible without our extraordinary students, funders, team, trustees and volunteers, who all believe Art History should be for everyone.

Thank you, and here’s to year ten and another extraordinary year of Art History for Everyone! 🎨

28/08/2026

We’re deeply grateful to the Rothschild Foundation for their extraordinary support over the ten years since Art History Link-Up was founded. Their early investment in 2016, supporting one of our first pilot courses at The Wallace Collection and then also at The National Gallery, helped us prove that free, accessible and accredited Art History teaching can genuinely change students’ futures.

The Foundation’s support, guidance and encouragement has grown alongside AHLU ever since, most recently through funding for our tenth anniversary strategy year and beyond.

The Foundation has just published a case study on our work, entitled “Innovation in Art History Education,” tracing the journey from that first pilot through to the partnership with Waddesdon Manor and Waddesdon Church of England School, and the national recognition the charity received last year.

None of this would be possible without the wider community behind AHLU, including our partners at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Christie’s and the University of Cambridge, our teachers, team, volunteers, our funders and board of trustees, and above all our students, who continue to prove what access to Art History can unlock.

We are proud to share the case study, and especially these very kind words: “A culture of reflection and learning has long been embedded within the AHLU team. This is evident in their iterative approach to programme development through pilot courses informed by pupil feedback, building a sustainable model for growth via capacity building partnerships. This is most visible through the Waddesdon blueprint, which extends AHLU’s approach to partner schools and arts and heritage organisations.” And from Dame Hannah Rothschild: “The next generation of thinkers, curators and practitioners will include AHLU’s alumni.”

Read the full case study via the link in our bio.

.rothschild .christies 📷 .alumni.official

24/08/2026

Mei Kawagoe joined AHLU as a Year 12 student at a state comprehensive in the East Midlands, when Art History felt like an entirely distant concept. She went on to achieve an A* in both her A Level and EPQ, win the Art History Link-Up x Christie’s Education Scholarship, and this summer completed a week’s work experience in the Modern British Department at Christie’s. She is now in her fourth year reading English and French at the University of Oxford.

Mei writes beautifully about what that journey meant to her, and about discovering that art history is a real discipline, one that exists for her and can exist for anyone. Read her full blog via the link in our bio.

Applications are now open for our free Art History A Level and EPQ course, delivered in partnership with the Courtauld Institute at Somerset House and online. If you are a Year 12 or Year 13 student in the state sector, or know someone who is, find out more and apply via the link in our bio. Applications close 4th September.

Courtauld Courtauld Research Forum Christie's Christie's Education 📷 .alumni.official

Address

30 Museum Street
London
WC1A 1LH

Website

http://arthistorylinkup.org/

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