Experiential Learning Opportunities

PLATFORM Social Design Lab, part of the MA in Art & Design for Social Impact, provides graduate and undergraduate students in the areas of graphic design and emerging practices with real-world learning opportunities in civic engagement.

Coalesce: Center for Biological Arts is a hybrid studio-laboratory facility dedicated to enabling hands-on creative engagement with the tools and technologies of the life sciences.

The Department of Art strives to offer an annual ARTBus trip, to a U.S. city within a day's drive of Buffalo, where Art students can experience world-class art museums. Past ARTBus trips have visited New York City, and Washington D.C. These trips usually take place in October, and for a nominal fee, students receive charter bus fair, and admittance to multiple museums. The travel is chaperoned by the Department, but while in the destination city, students are responsible for navigating between museums on their own schedule (recommended sequence and timing provided), and getting back to the bus in time to return to Buffalo. The ARTBus trips utilize a cost-efficient time model of leaving on a Thursday night (sleep on bus), spending all day Friday in the destination city, and returning Saturday morning (after more sleep on bus).

For information on any future ARTBus trips, Coalesce workshops, exhibition receptions, or other unique event opportunities in the Department, see our Event Calendar.

Students interested in study abroad have the opportunity to participate in numerous art-oriented programs around the globe. The Art History Program encourages majors to consider a junior year study abroad program. 

Interested students should make inquiries with:

Study Abroad Advisor  
201 Talbert Hall 
(716) 645-2258.

For further information visit UB Study Abroad.

Semester-long internships are available with prominent design and art studios in New York City and elsewhere; arranged through the Department of Art. Advanced students in all BA or BFA concentrations may also enroll locally in an internship course to gain practical experience. Placement is made in conjunction with faculty and includes design firms; commercial photographers; established art institutions or alternative art spaces. Internships are frequently available to Art History majors and minors at such local museums and galleries as the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the Anderson Art Gallery, BICA, Burchfield Penney Art Center, the Castellani Art Museum, the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Art (CEPA), the CFA Art Gallery, and Hallwalls. While internships may not be used to fulfill distribution requirements, they may be taken for credit.

With the approval of a faculty sponsor, students may sign up for a 3-credit independent study to pursue an issue or topic emerging from their coursework in art history. An independent study may not be used as a substitute for required courses.