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What is Art History?

Art history is performed by an art historian who is a specialist that studies the art created by individuals throughout time from a variety of cultures around the globe.  Art history degrees allow graduates to work diligently to analyze, interpret, and make sense of works of art into discernible truths.

Historians attempt to understand an artist, their way of life, culture, societal influence, political forces, and social impact of a given time and place when an art piece was created.   Art historians gather information from a variety of sources to triangulate information and authenticate data regarding a given work, art piece, or artist.

Career Summary

MEDIAN SALARY

$77,980

PERCENT ABOVE NATIONAL
INCOME AVERAGE

52.47%

TOTAL SECTOR EMPLOYMENT

272,170

Degree Median Salary vs Adjacent Degree Types

Source: BLS, US Census, and IPEDS

2024 Best Art History Degree

Harvard University's History of Art and Architecture is a historical discipline that seeks to reintegrate the work of art or architecture. The facilities in the institution are among the best at any universities in the world. The program seeks to understand how cultural artifacts transcend the historical moment of their initial creation and consumption. Their faculty supports cross-regional, transnational, and transcultural modes of analysis built around the principle of contact zones between cultures.  The top ranked art history degree program at Harvard University continues to lead the way with its leading curriculum and outstanding faculty. 

Acceptance Rate

4.64

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Princeton University's Department of Art and Archaeology is devoted to the study and criticism of the visual arts and the investigation of material artifacts from a wide range of cultures and historical periods. The institution provides a variety of educational opportunities for students to assist them in their growth and development. The program is an area where the students interested in the practice of art can pursue a major. Faculty at PU is comprised of individuals who explore subjects as diverse as art history, Roman city planning, Islamic archaeology, Chinese cinema, and contemporary painting. Graduates master the translation of visual perceptions into linguistic or material expression, develop their visual memory, and make connections with a wide array of other historical evidence.

Acceptance Rate

5.78

Student to Faculty Ratio

5:1

Yale University's Department of the History of Art takes pride in its history of producing thousands of undergraduates from the field. They train hundreds of graduate students as accomplished art historians who have gone on to successful careers as academics or museum professionals. Offering a comprehensive undergraduate program that allows students to pursue a major area of study through the completion of general education. The institution provides its faculty and graduate students the chance to instruct students in front of and with extraordinary artworks.

Acceptance Rate

6.08

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

Columbia University in the City of New York's Art History major is deeply tied to the cultural life of New York City. Students are engaged in making unique art pieces that bring them into direct contact with works of art in the city's museums and galleries. Classes in the program introduce students to the staggering diversity of New York's buildings and public monuments. The institution offers degrees at the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels, as well as professional degrees, in a comprehensive range of academic fields.

Acceptance Rate

5.45

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

Brown University's History of Art and Architecture is committed to the ongoing study of art, architecture, and material culture. Their faculty span diverse areas of art history to study and train students to become conversant in visual, historical, and critical analysis. The institution provides a variety of program options for students to assist them in their growth and development. Graduates have gone on to successful careers as scholars, educators, arts administrators, intellectual property lawyers, and museum curators.

Acceptance Rate

7.07

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

The University of Pennsylvania's History of Art degree program offers a wide variety of undergraduate instruction to satisfy the curiosity and pique the interest of students. The institution has an interdisciplinary approach to learning the program. The courses regularly transport students to Philadelphia's museums, galleries, and historic sites. Their faculty consists of award-winning instructors that help train the students in the field.     

Acceptance Rate

7.66

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

The University of Chicago's degree in Art History was a pioneer in the development of important theoretical methods in the 1990s. The program has a combination of global scope, object-driven research, and committed interdisciplinarity. The faculty and students pursue research spanning five continents. it is fully supported by robust language offerings. The program's commitments are manifest in faculty's co-teaching, cross-appointments, and involvements in other departments.

Acceptance Rate

6.17

Student to Faculty Ratio

5:1

Stanford University's Department of Art & Art History is an interdisciplinary department offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in art history, art practice, documentary filmmaking, and film and media studies. The institution provides a variety of degree programs for students to assist them in their growth and development. The program strives to understand works of art, architecture, and design from a variety of perspectives. It is a culturally embedded and interpretive strategy that art historians bring into play. These might include consultation of original archives, philosophical and critical discourses, as well as research into social history or formal analysis.

Acceptance Rate

4.34

Student to Faculty Ratio

5:1

Dartmouth College's Department of Art History provides students the chance to look deeply and searchingly. Exploring the visual cultures of diverse peoples, places, and times. The program will change the student's perspective on paintings and statues and advertisements and any visual phenomenon. It is more than the history of art it is also the way to look at the world and the environment around.

Acceptance Rate

7.93

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Duke University's Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies provides their faculty and students engaged in international research, interdisciplinary learning, and the study of visual culture across geographic and historical categories. The institution regularly collaborates with others across Duke through interdisciplinary teaching, research in their embedded departmental labs, symposia, and digital projects. Offering graduate and undergraduate programs that guide students in the understanding of the study. Graduates distinguished themselves through various experiences related to the field.

Acceptance Rate

7.6

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

Bowdoin College's Art History degree program offers courses that examine works of art in their historical, social, religious, and philosophical contexts. Students study formal aesthetic values of works and how they reflect the cultures and the personalities that produced them. The liberal arts curriculum exposes students to a variety of topics and subjects. The institution helps students in developing important skills useful in pursuit of graduate education or employment.

Acceptance Rate

9.05

Student to Faculty Ratio

9:1

Pomona College's Art History Department offers a broad range of courses in collaboration with art historians at Scripps College and the Art Field Group and the Classics Field Group at Pitzer College. The program provides students the knowledge of history, philosophy, and theory of art and becomes fluent in analyzing art objects from across cultures and time. Their alumni are professors at many of the major colleges and universities in the United States and directors, curators, and art conservators at key museums and galleries. Other alumni have gone on to careers as lawyers and physicians.

Acceptance Rate

7.4

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Williams College's Art History and Studio Art degree offers a rich array of courses in studio art and art history. Art professors engage with students in diverse spaces, from the classroom and the studio to museums in Williamstown and beyond. The institution offers an undergraduate education and helps students in developing essential skills needed in pursuit of graduate education or employment. Students can benefit from an array of great opportunities as they progress through the program.

Acceptance Rate

12.6

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

Swarthmore College's Art Department offers two avenues of study: studio art and art history. Students are introduced to basic skills of visual analysis and expression and to the conceptual frameworks necessary for applying them across disciplines and professions. It has a liberal arts curriculum that exposes students to a variety of topics and subjects. The institution firmly believes that the ability to understand works of art is the key to a richer understanding of human experience. Students learn and create in a department that is made up of a close-knit group of practitioners and historians of art.

Acceptance Rate

8.93

Student to Faculty Ratio

8:1

Cornell University's Department of the History of Art & Visual Studies encourages the crossing of not only geographic but also disciplinary borders. Students are encouraged to explore a wide range of fields. The institution is dedicated to transferring and applying university-based knowledge for practical benefits and economic prosperity. Their research is cutting-edge with research programs being highly interdisciplinary.

Acceptance Rate

10.85

Student to Faculty Ratio

9:1

Northwestern University's Art History concentration provides an excellent opportunity to develop the essential skills and talents that lie at the core of a good liberal arts education. Students study the art and architecture of cultures around the world and across the millennia. Taking a variety of unique approaches to their subjects and focus on understanding their aesthetic and historical significance as well as their social relevance.  Graduates go on to have careers in museums, galleries, arts reporting, or academe.

Acceptance Rate

9.05

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

The University of Notre Dame's Department of Art, Art History, and Design is multi-disciplinary and offers courses in the studio arts, art history, and design. The art history degree at UND provides a unique perspective on what it means to be human. Taught by talented and diverse faculty, students will acquire the technical and visual skills needed to work creatively. Art history offers an opportunity to view the world from a different perspective and see cultures from a different light.

Acceptance Rate

15.83

Student to Faculty Ratio

10:1

Georgetown University's Department of Art and Art History provides students and faculty a chance to pursue creative work and research to illuminate art's history and future with rigor, nuance, and imagination. Students work with objects, make things, and grapple with forms and ideas across time and geography. The institution maintains a Roman Catholic affiliation, which is evident in the role it plays in program curriculums and daily life at the school. Every course is small enough to allow for intensive instruction and wide-ranging discussion.

Acceptance Rate

14.36

Student to Faculty Ratio

11:1

Rice University's Department of Art History provides students a place where images, architecture, and works of art are examined with open minds and attentive eyes. Their faculty consists of experts in the art and architecture of America, Asia, and Europe. The program looks beyond categories of period and style to ask essential questions about what images, built structures, and works of art do, and what we do with them in turn. The institution is a nonprofit private university in Houston, Texas.

Acceptance Rate

8.72

Student to Faculty Ratio

N.A

Washington University in St Louis' Department of Art History and Archaeology offers a diverse program of study in art history, archaeology, and visual studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The institution has a strong partnership with other Humanities programs and with local arts institutions. They provide a variety of educational opportunities for students to assist them in their growth and development. The Department is an active collaborator with schools across the Danforth campus, as well as with the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Acceptance Rate

13.85

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Vanderbilt University's Department of History of Art and Architecture serves to connect the arts to the other humanities. The department encourages students to develop visual and cultural literacy by extensive study of works of art and the historical contexts in which they were created. The institution offers a major and a minor in the disciplines of studio art, classics, history, psychology, English, and foreign language literature. Their courses are offered at all levels and in most major subfields of the discipline.

Acceptance Rate

9.12

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Johns Hopkins University's Department of the History of Art offers students a diverse range of resources and opportunities for the study of art history. Taught by international faculty of respected research scholars, the history of art degree at JHU covers a broad temporal scope of the art and architecture. Participants in small classes with opportunities for close study of art in local and regional collections. Students have a chance to integrate their direct experience of works of art with the knowledge and critical perspective gained through historical research, discussion, and debate.

Acceptance Rate

11.17

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Tufts University's Department of the History of Art and Architecture offers courses on cultures from across the globe. Their approach is fundamentally interdisciplinary and many of their courses are cross-listed with other departments. The institution is an ideal place to study the history of art and architecture because of the vibrant local academic culture. They provide a variety of degree programs for students to assist them in their growth and development.

Acceptance Rate

14.95

Student to Faculty Ratio

9:1

Barnard College's Art History Department teaches students the history and practice of visual creativity. Training students to observe the world more closely and interpret what they see. Courses are regularly taught at or with museums, and visiting artists, curators, and critics frequently enrich their curriculum. Graduates from the program have gone on to careers in museums, galleries, auction houses, arts administration, publishing, philanthropy, and as academic and practicing artists.

Acceptance Rate

11.77

Student to Faculty Ratio

9:1

The University of Southern California's Art History major provides general knowledge of the history of art and through upper-division courses, specialized knowledge in a variety of areas. Their faculty consists of award-winning instructors and strong medical-health and science programs. The institution attracts many international students and also offers many studies abroad programs and internships. Students are exposed to a diversity of theoretical approaches and encouraged to sharpen their critical and conceptual thinking skills.

Acceptance Rate

11.42

Student to Faculty Ratio

9:1

Why Earn an Art History Degree?

An arts degree in art history prepares individuals with the knowledge and understanding necessary to evaluate, understand, relate, and analyze art throughout the various times in history. A student of art history will learn about the development of art from the earliest cave drawings to the modern day and will study the various movements and styles that arose in between. The role of art in the course of culture and social history is important as it speaks to the feelings of a generation and demonstrates what was accepted and what was considered taboo.

Best Art History Courses Online

Given the rise in quality and quantity of online degrees and art history courses, students can more easily register for online art history programs today than ever before. Art history majors online include a minors in art history, certificate programs, bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in art history after thesis art history completion.

Classes will vary from program to program but online history degree paths in art will typically include programs art history that span 21st Century world history, art of India, African art, precolonial art, Oceanic art, contemporary art, Italian art, Renaissance period, Irish and Celtic art, Islamic art, West African art, Greek art, cultural preservation, and politics of art.

Top Skills of an Art Historian

Information culled from a recent survey by the U.S. Department of Labor helps reveal a set of latent skills possessed by art historians across the country and for those that elect to study abroad. The top skills of an art historian gleaned from the survey of active art history students & active historians include the following characteristics and traits:

  • Communication Skills
  • Attention to Detail
  • Presentation Skills
  • Self-Discipline
  • Adaptability
  • Analytical & Critical Thinking
  • Interpretative Skills
  • Open-Minded & Curious
  • Organization & Task Oriented
  • Creative
  • Patient
  • Appreciation of Arts & Aesthetics

Courses Required for Art History Majors

A graduate level degree is typically required to pursue a career specific to art history, though a bachelor's degree, like many other liberal arts degrees allows for careers in several fields and opens up several graduate possibilities. Art history undergraduate and graduate programs art paths vary from student to student according to art history graduates.

A curriculum in art history may include:

  • Ancient Art History
  • Asian Art
  • Abroad Art History
  • The Dimensions of Art
  • History of Prints and Drawings
  • Art Methodology

What Can You Do with Art History Degrees?

Students earning art history majors from an accredited college domestically or study abroad program can launch art history careers in a number of directions. In fact, the breadth of careers available to art history majors can be a surprise many individuals. Art historians can find themselves working in a museum, auction house, state government, public corporation, university, art gallery, federal agency, local government, or publishing company.

A list of possible career options for an art historian can include the following:

  • Art Law
  • Art Historian
  • Art Advisor
  • Antique Book Store
  • Art Gallery
  • Art Librarian
  • Museum Curator
  • Estate Appraiser
  • Antique Dealer
  • Art Investor
  • Art Consultant
  • Art Preservation
  • Art Consultant
  • Independent Producer
  • Corporate Curator
  • Teacher / Professor
  • Art Publisher
  • Freelance Writer / Journalist
  • Artist Agent / Representative

Work & Art History Graduates Career

A career in art history is limited in terms of available jobs. Most individuals wishing to work in an art history related field will pursue a graduate degree and find work either teaching, at museums, art preservation, art appraisal or art galleries. Research positions for art historians are limited, though possible through universities or government grants. As a subfield of history, there are many similarities and shared skills, and much like history majors the higher level the degree the more the art historian will specialize in a particular period, era, or style.

A career in art history requires an excellent memory and analytical skill. An art historian must be able to identify and expand upon themes, styles, materials and mediums in order to evaluate and valuate pieces of art. Additionally, educators in the field must be able to expand on and relay historical fact, including accurate dates, major and minor movements, and the development of techniques. Individuals involved in conservation may work toward the acquisition or safety of historically relevant pieces, as well as their restoration.

Art History Students Salary After Graduation

Job growth for jobs in art history is expected to be as fast as average for all jobs based on the survey performed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  In that survey, they provide median salary expectations for students in a variety of trades.  The average salary for careers in art history varies by position:

  • Museum Curator - $48,500
  • Museum Technician or Conservator - $37,000
  • Federal Museum Curator - $75,000
How Much Money Does an Art History Professor Make?

The median annual income of an art history professor in secondary education is $68,650 with the top 10% making $140,070 and the bottom ten percent making $34,930 a year.  The span of income an art history teacher can make depends on the area of expertise, work experience, demand, hours worked, and geographic location.

Top Paying States for Art Historians

  1. New York             $112,450
  2. California             $99,140
  3. Massachusetts    $96,880
  4. Maine                    $94,790
  5. New Hampshire  $90,010

Top Employers of Art History Majors

  • Colleges and Universities
  • Junior Colleges
  • Art Schools
  • Technical Schools and Trade Schools
  • Performing Arts Companies

Courses and Arts Resources

Individuals interested in art history may also be interested in history, archaeology, or arts management. Students interested in learning more about art history through the lens of a national association may consider researching the AHA and the AHAA for professional insights, study abroad platforms, networking opportunities, and potential career advancement in the field.

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