Art History
The Art History program at the Lamar Dodd School of Art supports the study of the history of art through visual objects across a wide range of media, cultures, and periods. Courses stress the relationship between art and its historical context. This area of study develops the critical and rhetorical skills necessary for advanced work in the field.
Art History Alumni
At both the undergraduate and graduate level, alumni of the program routinely secure jobs in museums, galleries, and auction houses, and have gone on to attend some of the finest graduate programs in the country, including Columbia University, New York University, The University of Virginia, The University of Michigan, The University of Pennsylvania, and The University of Texas at Austin.
As a UGA student, Nina Goodall AB '17 interned at the Georgia Museum of Art and Atlanta's High Museum of Art. After graduating, she earned a prestigious fellowship at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, where she wrote the historical materials for an upcoming exhibition highlighting French painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.
Undergraduate Art History
The undergraduate program of study prepares students for a variety of career paths. Interdisciplinary by nature, art history deepens our understanding of and connection to human imagination and aspiration. Its methods explore questions of aesthetics, literature, philosophy, religion, economics, and socio-political structures, expressed in the art of cultures both near and distant. Students build perceptual, intellectual, and practical skills to look closely, read critically, research deeply, and write comprehensively in an increasingly visual and creative world. Alumni of this program have gone on to positions and fields such as: Archivist, Art Conservator, Art Critic/Writer, Art Law Attorney, Creative Director, Curator, Educator, Grant Writer, Historic Preservation, Marketing & Communications, Media Production, Nonprofit Management, Publishing, Registrar, Social Work. Learn more about the Bachelor of Arts in Art History course requirements at the Lamar Dodd School of Art.
Seminar students visit the nearby Georgia Museum of Art to review prints in the series known as The Disasters of War by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya (1746–1828)
Minor in Art History
The School of Art also offers a Minor in Art History that complements many areas of study. The Art History Minor is comprised of 15 hours of upper-level ARHI courses. Nine hours of 3000-level courses (3 courses) and Six hours (2 courses) at the 4000-level. Art History enhances critical and creative skills such as attentive looking, analysis and interpretation, object research, argumentative writing, and diversity of visual languages that communicate human experiences, values, and systems, which are useful across fields such as education, design and communication, journalism, digital humanities, museum and gallery work, business, medicine, and law.
Art History News
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Visual Culture Colloquium
Comprised of scholars from universities and museums both here and abroad, as well as graduate students and faculty from the School of Art, the Visual Culture Colloquium is conceived as an integral part of graduate education in art history at UGA and is meant to provide a forum for scholarly exchange. Since 2008, the Visual Culture Colloquium presents lectures at the School of Art that adopt a scholarly approach to the field of art history, broadly conceived. An integral part of the
Colloquium are lectures organized by the Association of Graduate Art Students (A.G.A.S.), in addition to lectures by our own graduate students and faculty and by visiting scholars.
Association of Graduate Art Students
Each year the Association of Graduate Art Students sponsors a lecture series featuring prominent scholars in the field of Art History. Governed by graduate students in Art History at the School of Art, A.G.A.S. organizes public lectures that address a range of specializations within Art History. A.G.A.S and its lecture series are supported by The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee, The Lamar Dodd School of Art, and The Association of Graduate Art Students.
Research Funding
Graduate students in the area of Art History may apply each year for supplemental funding to assist participation in conferences and to enable travel related to thesis or dissertation research. Deadlines for applications are in both fall and spring semesters. Sources include the Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts, the Graduate School, Dodd Scholarships and Awards, and the Art History Area Support Fund.
Entrance requirements for undergraduate majors
Last updated: May 29, 2026