B.A. in Art History

Suffolk University

Art embodies the rich tapestry of human history and cultures across the world. Art history examines how images and monuments communicate and how they function in society: to teach and to move to exalt and to incite. As an art history major, you'll gain access to other cultures, other eras, and other ways of thinking. You'll also get ready for your junior year abroad and for an entire lifetime of thinking and living with global and historical perspectives.
Art history majors develop a keen eye plus excellent research, analytic, critical thinking, and communication skills-launching pads for many careers. Suffolk’s art history graduates have gone on to pursue advanced studies in art history, archive management, museum studies, and law. Others have found meaningful careers in a range of arts-related venues such as galleries and museums, auction houses, archives, and nonprofit cultural institutions.
Suffolk provides a wealth of opportunities to enrich your education and experiences. The newly-renovated studio and workshop spaces of the Art & Design Department are available for those with a creative bent. Or you can pair your art history major with a minor in Arts Administration, which takes advantage of offerings in Suffolk’s Business School.
The major in Art History provides students with the knowledge and skills that will enable them to flourish both personally and professionally. By graduation, students will:
Be able to analyze and interpret art-and, more broadly, visual communication-in relation to its social and cultural context, using a variety of approaches (iconological, socio-historical, feminist, and so on), Appreciate the diverse roles that art has played in society, from state propaganda to social criticism objective documentation to subjective expression and spiritual transcendence to sensual indulgence.

College of Arts and Sciences