Minor in Art History

Students will:

• Acquire analytical skills to enable them to access meanings in visual images and develop a visual literacy.
• Acquire a solid understanding of the roles of art and visual culture in a particular historical period and/or world culture.
• Develop skills in critical writing, including the organization of a thesis and its defense.
• Acquire skills and methods for conducting historical research.
• Acquire a substantial understanding of art as a specific epistemic and historically important category of human expression and discovery.

Faculty members use a diverse range of methodological approaches to help students master the necessary tools and knowledge to understand our visual world.

Courses are offered from ancient to contemporary art history, with specific attention to social history, gender, sexuality and race, post-colonialism, and the context of history and politics.

• Visiting Artists and Speaker Series: The Department of Art regularly invites artists, critics, historians and designers to participate in the Department of Art Speaker Series, the Leslie-Lohman Queer Art Lecture Series, classroom lectures and critiques.
• Curatorial Opportunities: Students have opportunities to curate exhibitions at numerous art spaces, such as UB Art Galleries and The Project Space in the Center for the Arts.
• Buffalo Metropolitan Area: Buffalo is home to diverse grassroots and alternative spaces dedicated to new and experimental genres. These spaces complement larger institutions such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Toronto, a ninety-minute drive from Buffalo, is the largest metropolitan area in Canada. It has hundreds of alternative spaces and commercial art galleries including the Power Plant and the Ontario Gallery of Art.
• Study Abroad: Students interested in study abroad have the opportunity to participate in numerous art-oriented programs around the globe. The Department of Art encourages majors to consider a junior year study abroad program. For more information, visit the College of Arts and Sciences Study Abroad page.