Program

By minoring in Art History, you will develop foundational skills for a diverse range of professional and academic careers where critical thinking, cultural understanding, close looking, and effective communication are valued. Learn how visual objects and experiences intersect with cultural, historical, and social meaning, how the past relates to the present, and how the local connects to the global. Explore how visual communication and creativity operate in our everyday lives. Art History minors choose classes from a wide range of periods and geographies. The curriculum is oriented towards an interdisciplinary global perspective.  

Requirements

Requirements for the art history minor include 21 semester hours in art history. Transfer students must meet with the College of Fine Arts Academic Advisor to review their transcripts for the possible award of art history credits. The curriculum in our program begins with ARTH 2500 Introduction to the History of Art (or equivalent; see below), and you will complete an additional 18 semester credit hours of upper-division art history classes.

Art history minors should take six courses at the 3000-4000 level. The curriculum provides you with flexibility in the choice of upper-division art history courses, and you bear some responsibility for the design of your own program. Those with specific interests can specialize to some extent, and those who seek a relatively broad experience can receive such training.

Read further for an explanation about the various requirements. You may review your unofficial transcript (Degree Audit Report - DARS) by logging into the Campus Information System.

-ARTH 2500 Introduction to the History of Art

This course serves as the foundation class for your upper-division courses in the minor and should be taken in advance of any other art history course. In addition, it satisfies one of the General Education Humanities area Intellectual Exploration requirements (HF). You will investigate the ways in which works of art and architecture have developed within a culture and how they continue to exert influence upon the present. We discuss how to analyze and interpret these artifacts and to write about them using methods of critical thought. You can become skilled in observing and interpreting your own visual environment. Your goal is to become more aware of art and architecture as visual embodiments of ideas and values.

Credit for Art History Advanced Placement Examination

If you earned a score of 3, 4 or 5, you can be awarded six semester hours of University credit when it is used as a General Education fulfillment. The procedure is handled through the Admissions Office (250 SSB, 801-581-7286). It is necessary to earn a score of 4 or 5 in order to be excused from ARTH 2500 when it is used to satisfy art history minor requirements.

-Upper-Division Art History

The majority of coursework in art history is comprised of upper-division courses at the 3000-level and the 4000-level. The curriculum is designed to provide you with opportunities to learn about art and architecture of many cultures. Areas of study include the visual cultures of East Asia, Latin America, ancient Greece and Rome, European Middle Ages and Byzantium, Early Modern Europe (Renaissance and Baroque), Modern Europe and the United States, and 20th and 21st c. (Modern and Contemporary). We recommend that you work closely with the College of Fine Arts Academic Advisor and your faculty mentor to create a program of study that coordinates your interests. A series of courses successfully completed in multiple areas ensure that you have achieved an appropriate level of competency in art history.

-Enhanced Capstone Experience

The art history faculty would like to share in your accomplishments in the art history discipline. For this reason, we partner with Undergraduate Studies, the Honors Program, and UROP for the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium at which selected research papers by university students are presented before colleagues and friends. We encourage all our majors and minors to participate in this event regularly as they make their way through their course of study. Honors-track majors are strongly urged to consider the event for the publication possibility that enhances graduate school applications and can lead to the Undergraduate Research Scholar designation.

In order to be chosen for a conference session, you should submit an abstract for a twenty-minute paper directly to the Office of Undergraduate Studies (Sill Center). The one-page abstracts are juried for competency and quality, and you will be notified if the abstract for your paper was accepted. The Spring Symposium at which the students will deliver their twenty-minute papers (8-10 pages) will occur normally in early April. It is free and open to the public.

Grading Standards

Art history coursework must be taken for a letter grade. Credit/No Credit is not an option for these classes, as they are required for the art history minor. No grade below C- will count toward fulfilling the art history minor requirements.

Students who intend to declare a minor must see a College of Fine Arts Advisor. The advisor will assist the student to track program requirements and will notify the Graduation Division at the time of graduation (minor) or completion of the coursework (certificate).