Throughout history, humans have been exploring ideas and expressing their thoughts and feelings by producing art. By studying art history, you will explore the past by examining art and architecture as manifestations of human creativity and as forms of historical documentation. You’ll learn how art embodies and controls cultural, economic, gender, political, religious and social dynamics.
Program Details
Our faculty, staff and students are committed to the belief that visual culture matters in society and we value the importance of making, displaying, critiquing, and contextualizing the visual arts as academic activities in a university setting. To that end, our faculty teach the perceptual, practical, and critical skill necessary for the creation and understanding of art and design in a variety of media and contexts.
Program Outcomes
As an art history major, you will become familiar with major works both in the Western and non-Western traditions and learn to appreciate the fundamental and varied roles the visual arts play in the lives of human beings.
Courses are taught by successful faculty in the College Park Center, which houses state-of-the-art classrooms. You will also have access to the University’s Roesch Library, which houses a collection of art history books and digital resource databases such as ARTstor. The Department of Art and Design Gallery 249, several other gallery spaces on campus and various arts organizations in the Dayton area regularly present exhibits of interest and offer internships to art history majors.
In order to prepare you for work in our global society, you will also complete a language requirement. You may satisfy the requirement by taking a proficiency examination, completing an intermediate-level language course or participating in an approved education abroad experience.
The University of Dayton is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).