The Friends make an annual grant with the Department of History of Art, University of York, to sponsor an MA student. The scheme promotes the Friends’ educational goals, provides practical assistance to the Gallery through work done there by the holder (usually one day per week), and assists the holder at the outset of their career. The research project chosen for their dissertation will normally have a link to the Gallery’s holdings or the bursary holder’s work there.

Students in receipt of the bursary are asked to deliver:

• At least one lunchtime talk in the Gallery, together with a written version of the talk for publication on the Friends website.
•  A short presentation with power-point at the AGM in March, outlining the work s/he is/will be doing.
• A final short written report of 500-600 words to be submitted at the completion of the course on what s/he has done. This will subsequently be published – suitably revised if appropriate – in the Annual Report, with appropriate illustrations (copy due in the  December after completion of the course).

The holder may also wish to give further talks or submit research items (e.g. part of the final dissertation) or a digital resource suitable for posting on the Friends website or included in the monthly newsletter.

Documentation produced by past students can be accessed on the links below:

2022-2023 Essay by Kohu Kopariha: Reading Decoloniality in the Portrait of Captain John Foote by Joshua Reynolds, c. 1765: An Indian Perspective

2021-2022 Essay by Rhyann Arthur: Carol McNicoll and the ‘New Ceramics’

2020-2021 Report by Grace England: High Society: British Female Portraiture of the Eighteenth Century

2018-2019 Report by Lucy Booth:  The Morrell Print Collection

2018-2019 Dissertation by Lucy Booth:  The Morrell Print Collection: Past, Present, Future

2017-2018 Report by Abigail Jubb: The Tillotson Hyde Collection of Drawing and Illustrations

2016-2017 Samantha Timm Reflections: Curating and Teaching the 19th-century at York Art Gallery

2015-2016 Kyla Hollis, Land Lovers: The Rise of English Topographical Art in the 17th century

2014 Symposium paper: Frost Fair Ephemera

2014-2015 Jye O’Sullivan, A History of the York School of Art Whilst Located in York Art Gallery

2013-2014 Simon Spiers, York School of Design 1842-c.1852: A provincial School of Design and its contribution to Victorian Design Reform