Art History
The Art History program aims to provide student majors with a strong historical and theoretical understanding of the visual and material environment created by humankind. Art history is founded on the premise that artifacts embody, engage, and shape the beliefs and values of the persons, groups, and societies who made, commissioned, and used them. Students will learn to document and interpret changes in human society by taking works of art and other objects of material culture as their primary sources. They will also critically analyze and interpret written texts to help reconstruct and illuminate the contexts—social, economic, political, philosophical, and religious—in which artifacts were produced, used, and understood.
2025 Public Events
Check our News & Events page for details.
"Extracting the Past: How the 'AI' Industry Exploits Art History and What We Can Do to Stop It"
Tuesday September 16, 4:30p.m., Boger 112
Professor Sonja Drimmer, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Art History Faculty News
The Belgian Friendship Building: A singular architectural landmark bridging western Europe and the American South
Was the Belgian Friendship Building in Richmond, Virginia really a gift of a colonial power to an HBCU, or was there more to the story? Read an interview by the University of Virginia Press with Professor Katherine Kuenzli and the co-authors of The Belgian Friendship Building: From the New York World's Fair to a Virginia HBCU and discover the fascinating facts of this tower, where divergent goals coexist within one form.