Six Knox College Faculty Members Named to Endowed Professorships
Knox College bestows its highest honor to six professors with endowed professorships
Art History
Explore how art reflects—and shapes—our history.
Major or Minor in Art History
Art History = Your Passport
Since art history focuses on art in its original historical and cultural context, most majors study abroad in international art centers like London, Paris and Rome.
Course Spotlight
At Knox, Art History goes beyond traditional fine arts. Courses like Visual Culture Theory study mass media, film, television, digital culture, video games and social media.
- ART 106 Art History II
- ART 130 Introduction to Art Museum Studies
- ART 221 Native Arts of the Americas
- ART 226 Twentieth Century European and American Art and Architecture
- ART 273 Reading/Writing Art Criticism
- ART 323 Visual Culture Theory
Take the Museum Path
You can also choose an Art Museum Studies minor, which combines academic art history with professional training for a museum career.
Art History News
Alumni Find Success in the Museum Field as Knox Bolsters Program
The art museum studies program ensures students are well-equipped for dynamic roles in the evolving museum field.
Museum Studies Students Curate Show at Galesburg Community Art Center
Gilbert helped design the art museum studies minor in 2020 after recognizing the growing job market within the field.
Knox “Abolition for All Time” Lab Excels in Second Year
A major focus of the second year was curricular innovation.
Where We Study Art History
Whitcomb Art Center
Art History courses are taught in the lecture room of the new Whitcomb Art Center, which has been designed specifically for art history lectures and features the latest technology for projecting digital images from ARTstor and the department's growing collection of digitized visual resources.
Special Collections and Archives, Seymour Library
Knox College Special Collections include significant paintings and sculptures as well as the Famulener Collection of prints and drawings by old and modern masters. These collections are a valuable resource for art and art history students as subjects of exhibitions and for research projects.
Red Room, Seymour Library
The extensive collection of art books in Seymour Library has been carefully built with an eye to current and historical art movements and is a valuable research resource.
The Borzello Gallery
Opened in 2018, this secure, technologically sophisticated space is a working laboratory for teaching curation in the Art Museum Studies program as well as a space that brings exciting contemporary art directly to campus.
What Our Art History Alumni Are Doing
Art History majors and minors consistently achieve academic and professional success after Knox. Many have gone on to graduate programs in Art History and Museum Studies at prestigious institutions like New York University, University of California-Berkeley, University of London, and Edinburgh University. Others have pursued careers in academic art history, museum and archival work, arts publishing, editing and arts communications.
- Lora Sariaslan ’99 | Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Utrecht University, Netherlands
- Joseph Mohan ’03 (pictured) | Director of Production, Publications Department, Museum of Modern Art, New York City
- Melissa Mohr ’04 | Executive Director and CEO, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa
- Sandy Guttman ’10 | Assistant Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
- Ruth Evans Lane ’04 | Senior Editor, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, California
- Pac Pobric | Vice President, Polskin Arts at Finn Partners, New York City, New York
Art History FAQs
Art History courses are based on a variety of transferrable skills that can prepare students for jobs and careers in fields like teaching, museum or archival work, the tourism industry, editing, arts publishing, criticism, art law, commercial galleries, and art conservation.
While majors often go on to graduate Art History programs, others have used Art History to pursue advanced degrees in museum studies, library science, business, law, theatre design, arts education, arts management, tourism management, costume history, literary studies, and musicology.
Due to its strong interdisciplinary basis, Art History can be paired with a wide variety of complementary areas of study. Almost every academic subject intersects with some aspect of art and visual culture, making it an ideal minor or double major.
Is Knox for you?
Contact us to find out more about our comprehensive majors, minors, and programs.
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