Art History

Art History is available as a major or a minor at Assumption College.  When you study Art History you will learn to understand and enjoy works of art, and to reflect on their relationship to the societies that produce them.  You will pursue your studies in the context of a broad-based liberal arts education that develops your critical thinking and communication skills.  You will emerge not just with a knowledge of the subject, but also with the ability to look attentively and perceptively at the world around you and to articulate clearly what you see.  These are the skills that enable Assumption graduates to succeed in their professions and their lives.

Majors take 11 or 12 courses. As part of their program they complete a semester-long independent research project during their senior year. Art History majors may become teachers, museum staff or curators, art critics, gallery workers, art historians, researchers or arts managers.  Minors complete 6 or 7 courses. A minor in Art History provides students with a lively introduction to the discipline that can be applied in professional positions from museum work to publishing to landscape architecture.

Opportunities outside the Classroom

• Art History Club: The club organizes social events and visits to museums and exhibitions.
• Museums: The department organizes an annual trip to one of the great art museums in New York – The Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Guggenheim Museum have featured recently – and one other trip each year to one of the  museums closer to hand: the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, the Harvard Art Museums, or Mass MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), for example.  Many Art History classes involve a visit to the renowned Worcester Art Museum, only two miles from campus, and faculty often use works from the museum’s collection in their teaching.
• Internships: Students have had internships for credit at places like the Worcester Art Museum, Davis Publications, Preservation Worcester and Museum Action Corps.
• Study abroad: Assumption offers a number of study abroad options that complement art history.  Most notably, the Rome Program and the annual Foundations trips to European destinations have a strong Art History component.

Major

Art History students take 11 courses to complete their concentration. As part of their program they complete a semester-long independent research project and present it during their senior year. Students with a concentration in Art History may become museum staff or curators, art critics, gallery workers, art historians, researchers or arts managers.

Minor

To earn a minor in Art History, students complete 6 art courses (18 credits). A minor in Art History provides students with a solid background that can be applied in professional positions from museum work to publishing to landscape architecture.

Assumption students explored "The High Days of the Low Countries" with their professors as part of the Fortin and Gonthier Foundations of Western Civilization program. This blog describes their experiences in Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, and Amsterdam, during their 10-day expedition in May 2013 as they discovered the cultural riches of history, art, and architecture in these grand cities of Northern Europe.

16 Assumption College students contributed photos and videos to a blog capturing their voyage to the Golden Age of the Low Countries. Click here to read the journal.

To begin with their day-to-day itinerary, click the button below.

To learn about the Foundations Program Travel Seminar to Venice, click here.