Degree in stained glass offered

A new postgraduate course in stained glass is the only one of its kind in the English speaking world, organisers said.

The MA in stained glass conservation and heritage management at York University will combine academic study and practical training and is aimed a satisfying high international demand for conservators.

Staff at the university say the course will take advantage of York's extraordinary collections of medieval and post-medieval glass.

Course director Sarah Brown is combining her new role with being head of research policy for places of worship at English Heritage and director of the York Glaziers Trust.

She said: "We are developing the study of stained glass to meet the international demand for trained conservators specialising in the field. The course will be the first of its kind in the English-speaking world."

Ms Brown said stained glass has been a focus for academic study at the university since it was founded in the 1960s.

York is now the base for the British arm of the Corpus Vitrearum - the international stained glass recording project.

The course will be a two years long and students will have a five-month placement at conservation workshops in Britain, Europe or the USA. Potential locations for placements include the Cologne Cathedral conservation workshop and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The course, which aims to take up to eight students a year starting in October, will be run by the university's Department of History of Art, in partnership with Archaeology.

The university also aims to offer research degree in stained glass in the future.

From: The Press Associaton