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Profile view of a student painting with a sculpture in front of her. To her right, the Milan Cathedral looms in the background.

Art History

Explore how art reflects—and shapes—our history.

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Major, Minor
Art Museum Studies Minor

Study art across time and cultures.

Art history is all about asking big questions… how art and visual culture connect to history, society, and the world we live in. As an art history major, you’ll research topics you care about. By senior year, you’ll create a thesis focused on your own interests—with the freedom to develop new interpretations for artistic meaning.

Art history connects to much more than just art. You’ll see links to history, sociology, philosophy, classics, gender and sexuality studies, psychology, and even political science and economics—making it a great match with almost any major.

Along the way, you’ll build skills like critical thinking, research, and clear communication that carry beyond the classroom. Art history majors and minors go on to careers ranging from college teaching, museums, and non-profit art centers to law and the corporate sector. 

Major or Minor in Art History

Requirements Courses
In a gallery setting, a student crouches down to affix a piece of paper to a painting.

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.

Explore Art Museum Studies

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

Where We Learn

Knox College Special Collections include the Famulener Collection of prints and drawings by old and modern masters—a valuable resource for all art students, and subject of exhibitions and research projects by art history students.

Art History courses are taught in the lecture room of the new Whitcomb Art Center, which has been designed specifically for art lectures and features the latest technology for projecting digital images from ARTstor and the department's own growing collection of digitized visual resources.

The collection of art books in Seymour Library has been carefully built with an eye to current and historical movements. Art History classes also include special field trips every term to major art museums in Chicago and St. Louis.

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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