To ensure sufficient breadth of exposure to past and present art within a variety of contexts, three full semesters of art history survey courses are required for students who choose a concentration in art history. One of these must be Art History 102 Encounters: Art of the West and the World. Students may choose the other two semesters of survey from: History of Photography or the Global Arts courses. To have sufficient depth of understanding on more specialized topics in art history, students must take two 300-level courses and one additional course at the 200-level or above. (Students may substitute a second 200-level course for one of the required semesters of survey courses.) In addition, students must take a course or a module in studio art, writing, or social studies as a way to gain skills necessary for serious art historical study.
Outcomes of the concentration include the following:
Some of the secondary concentrations students have paired with Art History include: Studio Arts, Gender Studies, Literary Studies, Politics, Psychology and Chemistry.
Overall, a minimum of 24 credits are required for the Art History concentration, which may include up to two 100-level courses (3 credits each).
Art history is ineluctably interdisciplinary. Thus courses eligible to fulfill the requirement of one course being outside the core discipline of the concentration are numerous and varied; they will be determined at moderation in consultation with the student’s moderation committee based on the student’s interests and when specific courses will be offered.
Before moderating a student must have successfully completed at least two Art History courses. They may be selected from this list of 100-level courses:
One additional art history course at the 200-level or above in required for the concentration. That course may be selected from this list of sample 200-level courses:
Other intermediate courses in such disciplines as photography, film, writing, literature, theater, music, dance, visual art, philosophy or psychology, approved by the major advisor, may be substituted if they entail use of visual analysis, advance the student’s particular mission, or help build skills and background.
Students concentrating in Art History must complete a minimum of two 300-level courses. This includes courses that are offered at the 200-level for which the student and the professor devise a plan whereby that course requires extra work to deepen the learning experience and is listed on the student’s record as a 300-level course. For example:
One course in music history, theater history or critical theory, approved by the major advisor, may be used to meet this requirement if it complements the student’s own work.
The mode of inquiry used in the discipline is primarily object oriented, that is, students begin by looking closely at an art work and move toward gathering observations and other information about it to achieve an understanding of its political, psychological and economic aspects. Students learn vocabulary and skills to describe and analyze the art work’s salient features. Then they link the art work to social or political conditions in order to understand the artwork’s meanings at the time. These historical readings are compared to our own responses to artworks in the classroom. Any art history course meets the methodology requirement.
An internship or study abroad experience is strongly encouraged, though not required, and students can earn such credits to be applied toward the concentration with permission of their professor.
Typically a student leaves to study Art History away in either the first or second semester of the junior year. Students may student Art History or take related courses while on leave either at an accredited U.S. college or university of their choice, including Bard College in Annandale NY, or they may study abroad at one of many schools across the globe. Students have studied Art History at Bard Berlin, for example, Charles University in Prague, and The Courtauld Institute in London. Students are encouraged to consult with the college’s study away advisor as well as the Art History faculty to locate a study away program suited to their needs and interests. A study away plan must be approved in advance in order for the credits to apply to the Art History concentration requirements.
Students concentrating in Art History at Simon’s Rock have worked as interns at galleries and museums in Great Barrington, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere. A student recently studied in Sotheby’s Internship Program in London.
“Visualizing the Animal Multitude: Sixteenth- and Seventeenth- Century Hapsburg Painting and a Twenty-First Century Afterword.”
“Luxuriant Withholding: Blackness and Concept in the Event of Charles Gaines.”
“Comic Books and Graphic Novels in Popular and Elite Culture.”
“Power and Public Image in Cultural Representations of Augustus in Ancient Roman Architecture and Sculpture.”
“What the Folk?! Exploring First-Hand the Performance of Folklore in Asian and New England Communities.”
“A Day in the Life: Through the Looking Glass of MAD MEN.”
“The Image is the Poet's Pigment: Paradoxical Intersections between Word and Image.”