Art History

art history

Why is art made? What role does it play in our society and culture? How does it benefit us? For those who are interested in the history and analysis of the visual arts, the Visual Arts department offers a comprehensive art history program.

The educational experience for the art history student is centered on the knowledge and skills gained from rigorous and structured courses as well as the rich academic offerings throughout the university. Students study the bases of art history–the time the work was made, its style, formed in an historical period; the placing of the work of art in the period or place of origin; and, the artist, his/her time in history, his/her influencing predecessors, contemporaries and followers and schools of thought.

Students pursuing a BA degree with an emphasis in Art History will take two capstone seminars with the aim of developing advanced skills in the discipline and then applying them toward a research project. A departmental symposium in the spring semester serves as the occasion to present these findings. Students also pursue opportunities to speak at the university’s Research and Creative Activities Symposium or at the annual meeting of the Front Range Art History and Visual Culture Consortium.