Ithaca College

Department of Art History

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889 (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889 (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
What do our students do with an art history degree?

Beth Ann Barresi '95 completed a master's degree in arts restoration at the University of London and now specializes in the transportation of art objects at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Colleen Carroll '85 is the author of the "Artists Look at..." children's books on art, published by the Abbeville Press.

Tom Gitterman '90 is director of the Gitterman Gallery in New York City.

Cynthia Engle ’08 holds a position in the Library & Archives of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is helping to catalog the museum's collection.

Lauren Slowik ’05 is a curator of photography at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City.

Camilo Prates '01 installs exhibits, writes catalogue entries, and translates catalogues and other publications from Portuguese to English for Arte Futura Gallery in Brasilia.

Erica Schultz ’03 works as a preservationist in San Francisco, after having received her M.A. in Preservation Studies from the University of Maryland.

Azhar Tyabji ’93 is an Urban Planner with the Indian Environmental Planning Collaborative, specializing in the reconstruction of cities around the world struck by natural or political disasters, and author of the award winning book Bhuj: Art, Architecture, History.

Welcome to the Department of Art History

Why major in art history at Ithaca College? 

  • Because you've always been interested in art or architecture, or in understanding the world through visual images and objects and want to learn more.
  • Because you're interested in a possible career in museums, galleries, art restoration, urban design, landscape architecture, historic preservation, or architectural design, and are seeking the knowledge and skills that will help make that career a reality.
  • Because you love to travel, and are interested in study abroad or off-campus courses or internships that can take you to new places.
  • Because you want to understand why images and buildings look the way they do, and would like to explore how they can express fundamental ideas about culture and history.

The Department of Art History at Ithaca College is a dynamic department dedicated to developing the professional and personal interests of students with a passion for the visual world and the built environment.  We offer a curriculum designed to build art historical knowledge, shape professional skills, and provide rich and varied experiences for our students. The Art History major is intended to support students who have widely varying career goals, but is also designed for students who simply have a personal fascination with art in its cultural and historical context.

The department offers a number of exciting resources for students, including

  • The Handwerker Gallery, which provides opportunities for students to work directly with art and exhibitions, both in the classroom and as preprofessional interns.
  • Internship and fieldwork opportunities off campus, including at Ithaca College's Washington, D.C., and London Center programs.
  • An advanced technology classroom, funded through a major grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation, which provides rich environment for students to interact with digital images and multimedia.
  • One-on-one work with faculty on research topics in a tutorial, an independent study, and (for those who qualify) an honors thesis.
  • Access to digital image databases containing well over 1,000,000 images, for use in our classrooms and for student research.
  • An annual departmental field trip to a major cultural center, such as New York City, Philadelphia, or Washington, D.C.

 

School of Humanities and Sciences  ·  201 Muller Center  ·  Ithaca College  ·  Ithaca, NY 14850  ·  (607) 274-3102  ·  Full Directory Listing