Art History
College of Liberal Art and Sciences
The University of Maine’s Art History major prepares students for the media-filled and symbolic world that we live in today. Art History faculty teach diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to interdisciplinary inquiry about art, aesthetics, and visual culture. By encouraging intellectual curiosity and emphasizing the importance of comprehensive research and critical writing the major prepares students for graduate studies and professional success in a number of fields.
Subsequent courses cover eras and geographies significant to the history of art, and upper-level seminars are run as workshops to engage students in open discussions about focused topics and their own research and writing.
Students begin the program with introductory courses that survey historically significant objects and monuments, including paintings, graphics, drawings, sculptures, pottery, photographs, and architecture, from ancient times through the present. These courses consider form, content, function, and meaning of expressive works in their social, political, philosophical, and cultural contexts.
Subsequent courses cover eras and geographies significant to the history of art, and upper-level seminars are run as workshops to engage students in open discussions about focused topics and their own research and writing.
The program stresses from its first-year courses through its seminars an awareness of how diverse methodological approaches frame our knowledge of each particular subject.
The Department of Art offers dynamic, interdisciplinary programs in a challenging and supportive environment. The Department is home to the Lord Hall Gallery and works closely with galleries and museums throughout the state, in addition to sponsoring a visiting artist and lecture series. Such collaborations ensure that the department’s programming is vital and reflective of contemporary concerns in art, art history, art criticism and the teaching of art.
The Department of Art balances a strong foundation in the liberal arts and sciences with intensive study of the visual arts. Whether conducting research, analyzing, critiquing or producing work, students prepare to become informed and creative contributors to the media-rich 21st century.
Justin Wolff
Professor and Chair, Department of Art
107 Lord Hall
207.581.3245 | justin.wolff@maine.edu
Internships
Our students have worked as interns at the Portland Museum of Art, the university’s Zillman Art Museum, the Hudson Museum, and local galleries such as the Aucocisco Gallery in Portland. In addition, Art History students have participated in conferences, including the Maine Medieval and Renaissance Conference and national conferences, such as the Neo-Platonic Studies Conference and the National Honors Colleges Conference. Art History students also have been active participants in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Awards conference.