Academic Year:
Art History
Telephone: (302) 831-8415; Fax: (302) 831-8243
http://www.udel.edu/ArtHistory
Faculty Listing: http://www.udel.edu/ArtHistory/faculty/
Program Overview
The department offers programs leading to the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. The department offers studies in the history of art from ancient to modern times, with special concentrations in American art and in European art from the Renaissance through the modern eras. Cooperative arrangements with Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania permit students to take courses at both institutions. Other arrangements with various institutions enable students to work with original objects and documents and to arrange, under faculty and museum staff supervision, exhibitions on a variety of subjects. The University Gallery, located on the campus, has a collection of about 6,000 objects for teaching and student research as well as providing opportunities for organization of exhibitions. The collections of Gertrude Käsebier photographs and Abraham Walkowitz paintings and drawings, e.g., are the largest in existence. The University Gallery has received the Paul R. Jones Collection of African American Art, the Frederick and Lucy S. Herman Native American Art Collection, and the Mabel and Harley McKeague Alaskan Inuit Collection. Periodically, art history graduate seminars have contributed to the research for, and organization of, exhibitions at such museums as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Delaware Art Museum, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, as well as the University Gallery.
Resources of the department include an extensive image collection, the Decimal Index of the Art of the Netherlands, the "Illustrated Bartsch," and the Wayne Andrews photographic archive of American architecture, a cumulative index of dissertations and theses in American art. The University Library includes the Esther I. Schwartz Collection in the American Decorative Arts and special collections of books on museology and the conservation of works of art, as well as the George MA Hanfmann Professional Library of Ancient Art, the E.P. Richardson Library, and the Lloyd and Edith Havens Goodrich-Albert Pinkham Ryder Archive. There is also a collection of books and ephemera on Italian Futurism.
Another university resource is the Center for Historic Architecture and Design (CHAD), a multidisciplinary research and public service group exploring the evolution of historic architecture, engineering, and the built environment. Based in the College of Arts & Sciences, CHAD is cosponsored by the departments of Art History, History, and Geography, the College of Engineering, and the Museum Studies Program, and the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. CHAD is the first American university center in this field recognized by the Department of the Interior. Graduate students in art history may pursue a graduate specialization both in architectural history and in historic preservation and may qualify for CHAD grants, internships, and research assistantships.
The Department of Art History enjoys a longstanding relationship with the Center for Material Culture Studies, a dynamic collaboration of individuals, programs, and departments engaged in the documentation, interpretation, and preservation of the objects and images that have shaped American life. The Center builds on our collective national reputations and extraordinary strengths in well-established academic, research, and public service programs in the fields of material culture, historic preservation, museum studies, and historical archaeology. The Center for Material Culture Studies capitalizes on institutional partnerships with the Winterthur and Hagley museums, Historical Society of Delaware, and Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs. The Center offers competitive graduate student research assistantships, new and developing courses in design history and visual culture, and an exciting teaching and learning environment for faculty, staff, and students. The Center's programs reach into its University constituencies ranging from the humanities to the performing and studio arts, and reaching out to larger public and scholarly communities.
The Winterthur Museum Library, open to graduate students in art history, is especially strong in American art and in Western European art and design, a special strength in the Department of Art History. It also contains the Waldron Phoenix Belknap, Jr., Research Library of American Painting and the Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection.
The nearby Delaware Art Museum includes a comprehensive collection of American paintings, sculpture, and prints from about 1800 to the present day, the Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft English Pre-Raphaelite Collection, the John Sloan Collection, the Howard Pyle Collection, and the N.C. Wyeth papers.
Requirements for Admission
Graduates of the program have entered careers in college and university teaching, museum curatorship and administration, national and state arts agencies, architectural preservation and historic sites, librarianship, and research. Although it is desirable for candidates to have majored in the history of art, well-qualified applicants from other fields will be considered. Applicants are required to take the Aptitude Test of the Graduate Record Examination.
Applications for admission in the fall semester must be in the Office of Graduate and Professional Education by January 1. Applicants may request assistantships as part of the online application. See Graduate Admissions for further information.
Students are admitted to the graduate program in Art History on the basis of consideration of a combination of all of the following materials: a writing sample; a personal statement; letters of recommendation; undergraduate and, if relevant, graduate records; and Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores. Normally, for admission the minimum combined score for the verbal and quantitative portions of the GRE is 1050, and the minimum undergraduate grade point average (GPA) is 3.00. However, achievement of that minimum score and GPA does not by any means guarantee admission, as the majority of admitted students have considerably higher scores and averages. On the other hand, under special or unusual circumstances, other strengths may obviate the need to meet one or both of those stated minima.
Financial Aid
Please refer to Graduate Fellowships and Assistantships for further information.
Requirements for the Degrees
Requirements for the M.A. degree in Art History consist of 27 credits of course work plus 3 Master's Paper credits, satisfactory completion of the foreign language requirement (one language), and satisfactory completion of the Master's Paper. All students will be required to take 27 credit hours, of which at least 21 hours must be Art History graduate courses. With prior permission from the Director of Graduate Studies, students may substitute one or more courses in such related fields as Anthropology, Early American Culture, Historic Preservation, History, Museum Studies, and Philosophy. The degree requirements should be completed within two years of full-time study.
For students seeking a Ph.D. in art history, the department offers two routes to degree completion. One is designed for students who hold an M.A. in art history or its equivalent. The other, the Direct Ph.D. Program, is designed for students who hold a Bachelor's Degree in art history, or a related field, and are seeking a Ph.D. in art history. Students admitted to the Direct Ph.D. Program have the option of stepping out of the program at the M.A. degree.
Requirements for students in the Direct Ph.D. program consist of a minimum of 36 credits of graduate course work and satisfactory completion of the language requirement (2 languages), the M.A. Paper, and major and minor Ph. D. field exams. At least 30 of the course credits are to be in Art History seminar courses and the other 6 to be selected from additional seminars, graduate lecture courses, or independent study courses, or a combination of these. In addition to the 36 credits of graduate course work, 3 credits of ARTH 870 Master's Paper and 9 Dissertation Credits are required. Candidates then produce a dissertation, which is defended in an oral examination.
Requirements for the Ph.D. for students holding an M.A. include a minimum of 24 credits of graduate course work beyond the M.A. and satisfactory completion of the language requirement (2 languages) and major and minor Ph.D. field exams. At least 18 of the course credits are to be in Art History seminar courses and the other 6 to be selected from additional seminars, graduate lecture courses, or independent study courses, or a combination of these. In addition to the 24 credits of graduate course work, 9 Dissertation Credits are required. Candidates then produce a dissertation, which is defended in an oral examination.
CURATORIAL TRACK PHD PROGRAM IN ART HISTORY
The Curatorial Track PhD program (CTPhD) is intended to prepare graduate students in Art History for curatorial careers in specialized art historical fields. The program is open to students who have been accepted into the department’s doctoral program. Its nature is twofold: 1) a scholarly component will provide students with a thorough and intensive specialized training in graduate-level art historical studies; 2) a practical, interdisciplinary component will involve coursework in such related fields as art conservation, technical art history, preservation studies; curatorial and museum studies; and business and non-profit management. This second component also comprises a minimum of two internships in art museums (ARTH 664), including our program’s partners: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Delaware Art Museum, and the Walters Art Museum, among others.
Requirements for the CTPhD:
Students with a BA entering the Art History Direct PhD program and electing to take the Curatorial Track will follow all the rules and regulations (www.udel.edu/ArtHistory/graduate/gradrevision.html) of the Art History Direct PhD except as follows:
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The credit minimums and distribution for CTPhD students will be:8 courses (24 credits) in Art History graduate courses, following the same breadth requirements, etc., as the regular Art History Direct PhD and 6 courses (18 credits) in CTPhD Program Courses (see below for specific distribution requirements);
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The total minimum courses/credits for CT students in the Direct PhD Program will therefore be 14 courses (42 credits), plus 3 Master’s Paper credits (ARTH870), plus 9 Dissertation credits (ARTH969) = 54 credits.
Students with an MA entering the CTPhD follow all the rules and regulations of the Art History PhD program, except as follows:
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The credit minimums and distribution for CTPhD students will be: 6 courses (18 credits) in Art History graduate courses, following the same breadth requirements, etc., as the regular Art History PhD program and 6 courses (18 credits) in CTPhD Program Courses (see below for specific distribution requirements;
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The total minimum courses/credits for CT students entering the program with an MA will therefore be 12 courses (36 credits), plus 9 Dissertation credits (ARTH969) = 45 credits.
Area Requirements
A minimum of 6 graduate courses (18 credits), one in each of the following six areas:
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Art Conservation, Technical Art History, Preservation Studies, Techniques and Materials - Courses that fulfill this requirement will focus on such topics as: Properties and Structor of Art Materials; Conservation Research Methods; Examination and Treatment of Art Objects.
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Curatorial Studies, Museum Studies, Exhibition Courses - Courses that fulfill this requirement will focus on such topics as: Museum Curatorship; Conservation Research Methods; Examination and Treatment of Art Objects.
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Business and Non-Profit Management, Organizations, Human Resources, Administration, Accounting, or a course in a similar area with advisor’s approval - Courses that fulfill this requirement will focus on such topics as: understanding people in organizations; or ethical issues in the business environment.
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Elective - One course in any area (e.g.: Material Culture Studies, Art Conservation, Business and Non-Profit Management, Art History, etc.) with the approval of the advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies.
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Internship A (ARTH 664, max. 6 credits) - One semester of curatorial internship in area museums (a 2-month or longer summer internship will be deemed to count as a semester).
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Internship B (ARTH 664, max. 6 credits) - A second semester of curatorial internship, either in the same museum as the first or in a different one (a 2-month or longer summer internship will be deemed to count as a semester).
Doctoral Examination for the CTPhD
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Major Field Exam will include a connoisseurship component, which, when feasible, will include original objects.
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The Minor Field exam is not required.
Relation To The MA In American Material Culture
At the University of Delaware, there are two avenues to the historical study of the visual arts: (1) The MA and PhD program in the Department of Art History; and (2) the MA in American Material Culture sponsored by the Winterthur Program, a multidisciplinary graduate course of study offered cooperatively by the University and the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum. Students interested primarily in studying American decorative arts in a material culture context should consider the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture described in this catalog. The Department of Art History is concerned with the fine arts (painting, sculpture, and architecture) and with the decorative arts in that context, with study of the decorative arts at the PhD level especially encouraged.
At the PhD level, the department offers specialization in the decorative arts through courses at Winterthur, and students may take their minor field examination and elect to write their dissertations in this area. These students have access to the collections and teaching staff at Winterthur. Master's theses may also be written on the subject.
Although every effort has been made to assure the accuracy of the information in the Catalog,
students and others who use the Catalog should note that the policies, rules, regulations,
requirements for graduation, course offerings, and other materials reproduced in the Catalog change
from time-to-time and that these changes may alter the information contained in this Catalog.
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