The Arts and Humanities major addresses the core elements of human expression from historical, critical, comparative, and practice-based perspectives. It teaches students about art in human life and provides a context for students to develop their own arts practice. The intellectual and practical skills developed in the Arts and Humanities major prepares students for a wide range of careers including work in art history, arts administration, art practice, art education, music, museums, performing arts, publishing, academia and journalism.
I chose the Arts and Humanities major because I see the arts as a field that I will always have endless fascination for. I enjoy thinking about ways that rules and languages of artistic mediums can be bent to create new methods of telling stories. I am interested in the intersections between art and ecology, especially in relation to thinking about art as forms of social intervention.
Kathy Poh, Class of 2020
Arts and Humanities at Yale-NUS
The Arts and Humanities Major at Yale-NUS College is an interdisciplinary program that combines the theory and practice of artistic expression across a variety of different media including but not limited to painting, sculpture, photography, creative writing (poetry, fiction, drama, nonfiction), music, dance, and theater. It offers courses grouped in three Tracks: Art History, Art Practice, and Creative Writing. These tracks are a way of planning for greater depth and breadth within a particular field of study within the arts and humanities. They are also mutually permeable, in the sense that a student interested in different aspects of the arts can select courses from different tracks in a flexible manner.
Students in this major will learn to understand the history and evolution of artistic practice; to demonstrate literacy in textual and non-textual forms of thought; to describe and interpret artistic processes and methods; to recognise the relationship and relevance of art to society and community; and to re-imagine the world through artistic perception and practice. This major prepares students for work in several fields: creative production, writing and publishing, art administration, academia and art education, advertising and design.
Arts and Humanities Careers
Students from the Arts and Humanities major have pursued a wide variety of pathways after graduating from Yale-NUS College. Some have pursued graduate school programmes in Art History, while others have pursued a Master of Fine Art (MFA) programme to further develop their artistic practice from design, fashion, and creative writing. Others have also become practicing artists in Singapore or overseas, and have started their own companies and freelance practice. The lists below provide a snapshot of some post-graduation pathways students in the major have taken:
Graduate School Placements:
- Aalto University
- Parsons School of Design
- Pratt Institute
- The Courtauld Institute of Art
- University of Oxford
Career Destinations:
- AKIN
- Creatives Inspirit
- Infinit Care
- Infinite Studios
- Japan Exchange and Teaching
- LASALLE College of the Arts
- Media Monks
- National Arts Council
- National Gallery Singapore
- National Library Board
- NTU Centre for Contemporary Art
- Singapore Symphony Orchestra
- Tate Anzur
- The Straits Times
- TODAY
- Visa
