Art History

As an Art History major at Union, you will study a broad range of visual communication across historical periods and cultures – from Renaissance masterworks, Chinese scroll paintings and modern art to the art and science of painting – as you explore how societies throughout history have defined themselves through art.

The Department of Visual Arts offers a dynamic program that features small classes with individual attention and actively engaged professors. Interdisciplinary opportunities include work with Asian studies; American studies; Latin American and Caribbean studies; Africana studies; gender, sexuality and women's studies; film studies; and art conservation.

Other learning opportunities

The department sponsors field trips to museums in New York City and other locales. Students also learn from original works of art in the College's  Mandeville Gallery and the special collections of Schaffer Library, home to many rare prints, photographs, manuscripts and artifacts. Each spring, Art History majors present their research at Steinmetz Symposium, a day-long research festival.

Beyond campus, students can take advantage of a departmental term abroad in Italy (Florence) and mini-term in France (Paris). Internships and other forms of specialized study can be arranged with the Union College Permanent Collection, art galleries and museums in the Capital Region, as well as in New York City, Washington, D.C., and abroad.

Careers after Union

Our graduates have secured jobs in major museums, galleries, auction houses and libraries. Advanced study in the field can lead to positions in museum curating, teaching art history and visual culture, art conservation, historic preservation, publishing, and advertising and communications.

Here's a look at what some of our alumni have been doing since graduating:

• Architectural conservator, Jan Hird Pokorny Associates
• Department coordinator, Art of the Americas, Boston Museum of Fine Art
• Associate, Sotheby's
• Terra Foundation for American Art Fellow, Smithsonian Institution
• Assistant, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.
• Policy analyst, Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, Washington, D.C.