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Art History

San Xavier del Bac Mission, scaffolding, and clouds
Mission San Xavier del Bac, courtesy of Sarah Quinn Armitt

Like the Mission San Xavier del Bac, which is located on Tohono O’odham land near the city of Tucson and within the greater Sonoran desert, the Art History program at the University of Arizona is defined by its unique borderlands setting.

Studying the cultural, historical, and geographic complexity of any setting or object requires a theoretically informed and methodologically diverse practice. Art History students researching all subject areas are encouraged to engage the limits of the discipline and promote the transformational power of art. Our program shares with the University an emphasis on scholarship oriented towards social justice and the relationship between art and the environment. Students benefit from the breadth of Art History faculty research expertise and are encouraged to work with faculty across campus, in Africana Studies, Latin American Studies, Gender & Women’s Studies, Middle Eastern and North African Studies, East Asian Studies, and Anthropology, among others.

The University of Arizona Art History program produces competitive, thoughtful scholars who meaningfully contribute to the professional world of university teaching, museums, and arts-related organizations. Students take advantage of opportunities to engage directly with the School of Art’s Art and Visual Culture Education (AVCE) and Museum Studies Graduate Certificate programs as well as with campus and local institutions such as the University of Arizona Museum of Art (UAMA), the Arizona State Museum (ASM), the Center for Creative Photography (CCP), the University of Arizona Library Archives, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA Tucson), and Tucson Museum of Art (TMA.)

LIBRARY AND MUSEUM RESOURCES

You will find excellent library facilities available at the University of Arizona. The Main Library contains an art book collection consisting of approximately 120,000 volumes and 200 current art journal subscriptions in an overall library collection of approximately 7 million titles. Supporting collections include extensive holdings in facsimile editions and original rare books and manuscripts in Special Collections. The computerized library catalog is online. New data bases and services are added continually to the extremely user-friendly, state-of-the-art system, including internal and external subject searches, access to the catalogs of other university libraries and to a wide range of data bases, and to new computerized research tools on a world-wide basis, including Worldcat. An efficient Interlibrary Loan Department makes available materials not in the libraries of the University of Arizona from other national and international collections.

In addition, you can take advantage of the Science-Engineering and Fine Arts Libraries, the former of which houses 20,000 titles and 120 periodicals concerning architectural design, history and theory, graphic communication, and building technology. The Center for Creative Photography houses works by over 100 famous twentieth-century photographers in its internationally known archival collection of photographs. The Southwest Folklore Center houses tapes and manuscript archives of Southwest music and folklore. The Arizona State Museum, in the center of campus, specializes in prehistoric, pre-Hispanic, and recent Indian cultures of the Southwest and includes the Pal Kelemen Spanish Colonial Art Collection. Its 30,000 volume library specializes in the archaeology and ethnology of the Southwest.

The University of Arizona Museum of Art, located next door to the School of Art, offers special opportunities for graduate work, including the Samuel H. Kress Collection of 14th- to 19th-century European art; the Charles Leonard Pfeiffer Collection of more than 100 contemporary American paintings; the Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection of contemporary American paintings and European, Latin American, and Oriental objects of art; and an outstanding prints and drawings collection containing works ranging from the late medieval to the contemporary. Temporary exhibitions focus on contemporary international, national, and regional artists.

The Center for Creative Photography provides many opportunities for graduate students from the Ansel Adams Fellowship to other work and volunteer opportunities including curatorial, education, registration, conservation and archives.

VISUAL RESOURCE CENTER

The Visual Resource Center (VRC) is a digital and analog image library dedicated to supporting the teaching, research and study needs of faculty and students within the School of Art and the College of Fine Arts. Visit the Resources & Facilities page to learn more.

The Art History division engages in a number of professional activities and outreach programs:

UNDERGRADUATE

As an undergraduate, you have the opportunity to participate in senior capstone courses, internships, and study abroad opportunities. An annual undergraduate research essay competition, with monetary award, and undergraduate student travel funding to professional conferences is also at your fingertips. Further, our student-run undergraduate Art History Club has active peer tutoring, opportunities for travel to regional art collections, local social activities, and faculty/student interactions.

Art History Undergraduate Club

The Art History club is a student-run organization that seeks to enhance student appreciation for art and its history via informal social gatherings, discussion of readings, movie screenings, as well as trips to cultural sites. A member of the Art History faculty serves as sponsor of the club and coordinates activities.

Art History Undergraduate Essay Prize and Lecture

Annual presentation on current research by the recipient of the Art History Undergraduate Essay Prize.

Summer Research Institute

This is a program for eligible juniors and seniors who wish to conduct research that ultimately prepares him or her for graduate studies. The Summer Research Institute provides an outstanding opportunity to learn how to conduct research and prepare for graduate studies at the University of Arizona.

For more information on this program, please visit the Graduate College – Summer Research Institute

GRADUATE

Professional Activities

A major strength of the graduate program in Art History is its emphasis on your development as a professional in the field of Art History, as well as in your growth as a scholar. Toward that end, the faculty expects the active participation of all students in opportunities that provide practical experience and lead to the development of students’ CVs.

The most important of these opportunities is the annual graduate symposium organized by the Art History Graduate Student Association. The experiences it provides are essential to your growth as an art history professional, whether you choose to work in academia or in a museum environment. You are encouraged to submit your original work for consideration to national symposia and conferences.

Before participating in a public forum, you have the opportunity to go through a trial run at the Art History Brown Bag Colloquium Series. The Brown Bags are informal talks given by faculty and graduate students in Art History, in which scholars present their research for the critical review of their peers.

Periodically during the year, the faculty invites specialists in their areas of research to give public lectures at the University of Arizona and private seminars to the Art History graduate students. Attendance is required at these exceptional opportunities to learn from (and network with) internationally recognized scholars.

In addition, the Jane Welch Williams Award recognizes excellence in graduate work. Students submit a scholarly paper to this annual competition, the best of which is chosen to be presented as a talk at the University of Arizona Museum of Art.

Art History Graduate Student Association

Recognized by the Arizona Student Union Association and the Graduate and Professional Student Council, the Art History Graduate Student Association (AHGSA) has sponsored an art history symposium each spring semester since 1990. AHGSA is dedicated to supporting the academic and professional development of its members. As an officially constituted organization, AHGSA is eligible for funding from the University.

For more information about AHGSA, please visit their website.

Art History Graduate Symposium

Each year, AHGSA organizes a symposium, which is one of only thirty entirely student-run symposia in the country. By participating in the organization, graduate students have the invaluable opportunity to gain experience in producing, moderating, and directing a professional academic forum. Graduate students develop professional relationships with scholars and artists around the country, generating national recognition for the Art History Graduate Student Association, the School of Art and the University of Arizona. In addition, the event is a collaborative effort with undergraduate Art History and Studio art students, providing professional experience for the undergraduate student body.

LECTURES

In addition to the annual VASE Lecture Series, there are a number annual lectures that compliment the program in Art History:

Art History Graduate Student Symposium, Keynote Lecture

Annual lecture delivered by an important scholar in conjunction with the Art History Graduate Student Symposium. For more information on the annual symposium, please visit the AHGSA website.

Art History Undergraduate Essay Prize and Lecture

Annual presentation on current research by the recipient of the Art History Undergraduate Essay Prize.

Jane Welch Williams Graduate Essay Prize and Lecture

The annual competition honors our late colleague in medieval art, Jane Welch Williams. The award recognizes distinguished research and writing in art history at the graduate level. The recipient presents her/his work before an audience of students, faculty, and the general public in the University of Arizona Museum of Art.

Robert M. Quinn Endowment for Distinguished Scholars in the History of Art

Lecture delivered in alternate years by a distinguished, visiting scholar in Art History with funds generously bequeathed by Dr. Robert M. Quinn, the founder of the Art History program at the University of Arizona. Recipients will have a research focus in either Medieval through Modern European art, Pre-Columbian through Modern Latin American art or Chinese or Japanese art.

Visit our Degrees page to find out more about degree offerings in Art History, or contact an academic advisor or set up an advising appointment to learn more about School of Art programs and admissions.

Ready to join our community of dedicated artists, educators and scholars? Visit our Admissions page to start your application.

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