Vienna: The Making of a Cultural Capital
This course and city experience form part of The Story of Art and the Cities that Helped Write It, an ambitious long-form programme exploring art history through the places where it was created, collected, transformed, and preserved. Through a combination of expert-led online learning and immersive city experiences, the programme places great works of art back into their original cultural context—revealing the people, power, ideas, and institutions that shaped them. Each individual course and city experience can be enjoyed on its own, while also contributing to a wider journey across the cities that defined the story of art.
Find our more about The Story of Art and the Cities that Helped Write It programme here
Overview
The museums and palaces of Vienna occupy a central place in the story of art because they preserve one of Europe’s most significant dynastic collecting legacies: that of the House of Habsburg. Over centuries, the Habsburgs used art not only as a symbol of taste, but as an instrument of imperial power, diplomacy, learning, and prestige. Through marriage alliances, territorial expansion, patronage, and acquisition, they assembled extraordinary collections of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, armour, manuscripts, and objects from across Europe and beyond. These collections now survive in remarkable settings where they reveal how royal collecting helped shape the modern museum. Vienna allows us to see how art moved from private dynastic possession to public cultural inheritance, making the city essential to understanding the relationship between collecting, empire, and the formation of the European canon.
Dates
Online Course: 25 Oct, 1, 8 Nov 2028 Wednesdays, 4pm GMT
City Tour: 17 & 18 Nov 2028 Friday & Saturday, 9:30am-5pm
Fee
Online course €380 - 3×1-hour lectures preparing each city (collectors, context, art history framework)
Vienna experience only (2 days) €1950. Lecturer-led immersive museum + collection-focused city experience
Online + Vienna experience (combined package) €2,320 Full pre-study + guided on-site immersion for one city
Lecturer’s Biography
Aliki Braine
Aliki Braine (b. 1976, Paris) is an artist and art historian. She studied at The Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford, The Slade School and The Courtauld Institute, London where she was awarded a distinction for her theses on 17th century painting. She has been working for The National Gallery for 25 years and teaches for Christie’s Education, The Wallace Collection, The Arts Society and numerous private clients. Aliki is also a practicing artist who taught at Camberwell College of Art and Westminster University and who regularly exhibits her work internationally.
