CASE.EDU:    HOME | DIRECTORIES | SEARCH
case western reserve university

DEPARTMENT OF
ART HISTORY AND ART

 

 

About the Art History and Art Department

 

The Department of Art History and Art offers opportunities to study art history, to participate in a broad range of studio offerings, to pursue state teacher certification in art education, and to engage in pre-professional museum training. The Bachelor of Arts degree is granted in art history and in pre-architecture, and the Bachelor of Science degree in art education. In addition, the department offers graduate programs leading to the degrees of Master of Arts in art history, in art history and museum studies, and in art education; and the Doctor of Philosophy in art history, and in art history and museum studies. All art programs are considerably enhanced by close cooperation with and access to the facilities of cultural institutions located in University Circle, in particular The Cleveland Museum of Art and The Cleveland Institute of Art . Further information about the Art Education/Art Studio programs is available online.

The CMA/CWRU Joint Program has been in existence since 1967. The Museum's curators serve as adjunct faculty, and graduate research projects under their direction often result in exhibitions and publications. The Museum Studies course and internships provide experience in curatorial practices, connoisseurship, conservation, design, and museum education, and the program has a history of producing leaders in the museum field. Graduate students are exposed to both traditional and newer theoretically based art historical approaches in classes taught by faculty renowned for their expertise in a diversity of fields.

Resources and Facilities

Most classes are held at the Cleveland Museum of Art where students have access to the permanent collections and to a rotating schedule of exhibitions. Graduate students are assigned carrels or shelves in the Museum's Ingalls Library, as well as being granted stack privileges. The Ingalls Library is the fourth largest art museum library in the United States, comprising over 300,000 volumes, including major art periodicals and auction catalogues. In addition, the Museum's Photograph Study collection comprises over 6.4 million images, many of which are housed in special collections.

The University's Kelvin Smith Library, with approximately 1.2 million volumes, is linked cybernetically with 75 college and university libraries in the state of Ohio. Enrolled students may use the fiber-optic CWRUnet system to borrow from these institutions via the internet. The downtown Cleveland Public Library, one of the best of its kind in the nation, is another major resource.

The department sponsors the annual Cleveland Symposium, organized by its graduate students for the presentation of papers. The annual meeting of the Midwest Art History Society offers another yearly venue for graduate students to present their research. The Cleveland Museum of Art's active schedule of symposia, held in conjunction with its major exhibitions, provides students with the opportunity to hear distinguished national and international scholars, as do university sponsored programs of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities. Various conferences sponsored by CWRU, notably the American Studies program's collaboration with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, also engage topics of interest in visual and cultural studies. The department sponsors an annual lecture in honor of Professor Emeritus Harvey Buchanan. Speakers have included Susan Vogel, Arthur Danto, John Clarke, Ann Coffin Hanson, John Wilmerding, Neil Stratford, Joan Marter, and Pratapaditya Pal.

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS

Case Western Reserve University provides students with the unique opportunity of taking courses in one of America's major art museums. Its outstanding collections enable students to study at first-hand important examples of both Western and Non-Western art. The curriculum is designed to give students a broad grounding in painting, sculpture, architecture and the decorative arts, with a strong emphasis on understanding the cultural context in which they were produced. Students also develop a technical and critical vocabulary as well as sound writing skills to express ideas and feelings about a work of art.

Complete information for the undergraduate art history major is available online, in the Handbook for Undergraduate Majors .


GRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS


Case Western Reserve University, in conjunction with The Cleveland Museum of Art, offers graduate degree programs in art history (M.A. and Ph.D.) and art history and museum studies (M.A. and Ph.D.). The CMA/CWRU Joint Program provides a unique opportunity for qualified graduate students to participate in academic and hands-on course work within one of America's major comprehensive art museums, located in University Circle, a cultural park comprising fifteen art institutions. Committed to training museum professionals as well as scholars and teachers, these programs draw on the collective strengths of a major research university and a world-class museum which is at the forefront in development of the new technologies and approaches that will define museum practice in the next century.

Requirements

The M.A. program in art history is designed to provide broad knowledge of the major art historical periods, as well as the historiography and critical methodologies of art history. Opportunities to investigate art historical problems are provided in lecture and seminar settings. The doctorate is awarded in recognition of advanced mastery of a specific area within the discipline. Mastery of one approved foreign language is required for the M.A. (a total of 30 hours of course credit) and two for the Ph.D. (18 hours of course credit and 18 hours of dissertation research).

The M.A. and Ph.D. in art history and museum studies includes, in addition to the above, the study of art museum procedures and connoisseurship, and a supervised museum internship (2-6 additional credit hours). Dissertation topics for this specialty may be related to museum practice, if they satisfy scholarly standards within the field.

Fellowships and Assistantships

The Joint Program offers financial assistance based primarily on academic excellence and scholarly promise. M.A. and Ph.D. candidates are eligible, and all awards are renewable. Both tuition waiver and stipend awards are normally given; most take the form of funded teaching assistantships which provide invaluable training for future academic and museum positions. One CMA Fellowship per year provides tuition remission and stipend. Full tuition minority fellowships are availabe on a university-wide competitive basis. Women students may apply for the university's Eva L. Pancoast Awards, which provide up to $3,000 for research and study abroad. The Noah L. Butkin Award provides assistance to one art history Ph.D. student yearly working at the dissertation level.

Information and Application Procedures

Application forms and further information on degree programs and requirements, as well as financial assistance, should be requested from the Chair, Department of Art History and Art, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106-7110. Telephone: (216)368-4118. Information may also be requested from the Case website. Applications for the fall semester are due February 15. GRE scores, undergraduate and post-graduate transcripts, three letters of recommendations, and two writing samples are required for admission consideration.

Complete information for the graduate degrees in art history and musuem studies is available online, in the Graduate Handbook.