Art History Minor
The art history minor offers students interested in the history of art an opportunity to gain a more-than-basic knowledge and understanding of a broad range of works of art and their cultural contexts. Students will learn about the scholarly issues within the field and become familiar with a variety of ways to analyze works of art. The art history minor will allow students to develop skills in critical thinking, written communication, and, above all, in visual analysis, which is particularly important in our increasingly visually-oriented world.
The interdisciplinary nature of the study of the history of art facilitates inquiry into politics, society, religion, economics, aesthetics, science, literature, poetry, theatre, music, gender, and more, and so an art history minor can be a valuable complement to many major fields of study.
Beyond being an excellent component of any liberal arts education, the art history minor would be especially beneficial for those students who want to pursue a career in a field related to the arts or culture, such as museum work, education, event-planning, travel and tourism, or in a field that requires an understanding of visual culture, such as advertising, marketing, film, television, web design, and more.
The art history minor requires a total of 18 hours of coursework: three general survey courses and three 3000-level courses of the student’s choice.
Required courses (9 hours):
ARTS 1710 Introduction to Art History I
ARTS 1720 Introduction to Art History II
ARTS 1730 Introduction to Art History III
Choose three courses among the following (9 hours):
ARTS 3700 American Art
ARTS 3710 Ancient Art of the West
ARTS 3720 Medieval Art of the West
ARTS 3730 Renaissance Art in Italy
ARTS 3740 Baroque and Rococo Art
ARTS 3750 19th century Art
ARTS 3760 20th century Art
ARTS 3770 Ancient American Art
ARTS 3780 Renaissance Art of Northern Europe
ARTS 3790 Arts of Asia
ARTS 3800 Issues and Criticism in Contemporary Art
ARTS 4970 Special Topics in Art History