Bachelor of Arts in Art History

The undergraduate major in Art History empowers students to understand, interpret, and contribute to our complex visual world. Majors gain a broad knowledge of diverse historical and contemporary artistic traditions and receive structured training in foundational skills of art historical analysis, scholarly research, and writing. Our flexible curriculum exposes students to various cultures, periods, and theoretical perspectives while training them to pursue individual interests in specific areas of historical and contemporary art. Art history majors: Develop valuable skills in visual, verbal, and written literacy; analytical insight and investigation; critical reading and reasoning; information synthesis; close visual and material observation; original research; and persuasive argumentation. Learn and use fundamental art historical concepts, vocabularies, methodologies, and problem-solving techniques to examine and interpret art. Explore diverse conceptions of human creativity, art, and artists. Grasp how visual images and material culture communicate information, define cultures, and contribute to new and innovative ways to understand the past and present. Work directly with original art objects, archival materials, and architectural sites. Actively engage with other fields, including history, philosophy, literature, music, gender studies, languages, cultural studies, anthropology, comparative religion, and media studies.

To be eligible for full admission consideration, applicants must present the following: Completion of a college-preparatory course of study to include the following high school credits: a. 4 high school credits of English; b. 2 high school credits of a single world language; c. 3 high school credits of mathematics: algebra, geometry, and preferably trigonometry (a fourth high school credit of mathematical analysis or calculus is recommended forstudents preparing for majors in the sciences or engineering; d. 3 high school credits of socialscience; e. 3 high school credits of science, including 2 years of labscience; f. 1 senior-year math-based quantitative course; g. 0.5 high school credits of the fine, visual, or performing arts; h. 0.5 high school credits of electives taken from the above areas; One high school credit represents a standard full year of high school coursework.