Department of Art & Art History
After Graduating
Studio Art alum Lin Vandervliet '14
What can I do with a major in the arts?
“Being a studio art major has led me to become a much stronger creative problem solver when difficulties arise. I have learned that it is almost guaranteed for things to not go exactly as planned, which has taught me to be able to quickly adapt to difficult and frustrating situations. This major allows me to be creative in any way I want, and is virtually limitless in what I can do.” - Studio art senior, 2023
"I have really enjoyed my past four years throughout this program. Coming into school, I didn’t think that I was going to be an art major and I really did appreciate the flexibility within Rollins and their curriculum to add the second major to my agenda. I also feel that having this major and learning the creative thinking skills that I have acquired over the past four years has sent me a part in my job search in a professional and corporate setting.” - Studio art senior, 2023
An Art History degree can lead to a wide variety of careers, many of which require the writing, research, argumentation, and visual literacy skills gained from the major. Museum work can include art conservation, public relations, marketing and development, event planning, and education, in addition to curating exhibitions. Other careers include art appraisal and authentication, gallery sales and auctions, publishing, arts administration, corporate curating, film production assistant, visual resources management, and art and cultural property law.
Explore, at the national level, how Studio Art graduates are pursuing their careers by visiting the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) website. This site provides the first national profile of how artists prepare and develop in the United States, by giving a deeper understanding of what constitutes artistic success and contribution, identifying factors needed to better connect arts training to artistic careers, and by looking at issues that have helped (or hindered) the careers of arts alumni, whether they have chosen to work as artists or pursue other paths.
Visit The Art Career Project for a breakdown of nearly every type of art and career you can imagine, from the normal to the more obscure. Search hundreds of profiles for an overview of each career, what each type of artist does, where they might work, how to get started, and average salary information. Use their experiences as insights into how you should prepare for the road ahead.
Visit Career & Life Planning's website for a variety of services and resources, including resume and cover letter assistance and job opportunities in Handshake, to help you evaluate your art-related career options, plan for your future, and achieve success.
Our Alumni
Read what our alumni have to say about how our programs have helped them in their careers today!
Isaac Gorres '21
After graduating from Rollins College with an ABH in Art History and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology and a minor in Studio Art, Isaac Gorres is a first-year MSc student studying Biology with a Specialization in Environmental Microbiology at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Gorres' research interests span the diverse and interdisciplinary fields of technical art history and the microbiology of painted surfaces, with a particular emphasis on the novel use of restrictive isolation schema to deduce the identity of unknown organic red pigments in art objects. In 2021, Gorres guest curated "Path to Paradise: The Artistic Legacy of Dante's Divine Comedy" at the Rollins Museum of Art as the Dr. Fred W. Hicks Curatorial Fellow. The exhibition placed illustrated archival texts alongside contemporary artworks and an early Roman sarcophagus.
Recently, Gorres submitted an application to study all things demonic at "Arcane Worlds: New Frontiers in the Study of Esotericism," an advanced summer program at the University of Amsterdam in collaboration with the Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents. At UvA, Gorres plans to study the emergence of contemporary Satanism at The Satanic Temple and analyze the appropriation of occult imagery by TST in their religious activism.
Morgan Snoap '20
Morgan Snoap is a PhD student studying African art with a focus on North African textiles and related gender politics. Her research particularly explores the roles of women in the making and wearing of woven textiles, aiming to elevate the often overlooked female historical narratives. Graduating with her MA in May 2022, she is also the winner of the Mamie Hyatt prize for the best Master’s Scholarly Paper for the 2021-2022 academic year. Her study, “Motifs in Motion, Fes Belts (ahzima) and Moroccan Design Innovation in the Early Modern Mediterranean World,” brings to life a dynamic world of aesthetic exchanges between Europe and Northern Africa in the early modern period. Her study centers on ahzima, heavily patterned silk belts historically woven in Fes by Jewish male artisans assumed to have migrated from Al-Andalus following the fall of Granada in 1492. Morgan's scholarship complicates previous scholarship that has largely sought to determine the single “origins” of the motifs and textile designs of ahzima in Morocco. Her research brings to light a more nuanced and exciting world of material circulation and intercultural crosspollination that allows us to see the belts as a materialization of these complex networks.
Prior to attending BU, Morgan received her B.A. in Art History with minors in Middle Eastern & North African studies and Sexuality, Women’s & Gender studies at Rollins College, graduating valedictorian, summa cum laude and with Honors for her senior thesis, “Algerian Women’s Waistcoats – The Ghlila and Frimla: Readjusting the Lens on the Early French Colonial Period (1830-1870).” Morgan held the position of Fred W. Hicks curatorial fellow for two years at the Rollins Museum of Art/Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, where she curated the exhibition “ReOrienting the Gaze,” on view in spring 2021. Snoap also co-curated the exhibition and co-wrote the accompanying exhibition catalogue, African Apparel: Threaded Transformations across the 20th Century, with Dr. Ryan and fellow student Cristina Toppin ’21, on view in spring 2020.
Caroline Arrigoni '17
During her time at Rollins as a Studio Art major, Caroline was able to apply her passion for art and design to prepare herself for a future education and professional career. The skills and knowledge that she gained at Rollins allowed me to build confidence and the ability to grow as an individual and artist. Following graduation, she continued her passion for design by pursuing a Master of Architecture at the University of Florida. The visual literacy learned while in the Studio Art major enabled her to achieve the Graduate Architecture Academic Achievement Award and the Graduate Architecture Design Honor Award. The internship experience completed at ACi Architects while at Rollins has become her workplace for over five years. Where she started as an intern, it has now developed into her dream career focusing on the design of mixed-use projects, public development, and residential communities.
Rollins’ degree in Studio Art facilitated Caroline's lifelong engagement with the arts. The skills and talent acquired in that program allowed for an easy transition into the medium of architecture. With her artwork recently displayed in the Orlando Museum of Art as part of the Architecture and Placemaking Art Show, Caroline's career has now shaped around Architecture and Art.
David Matteson '15, MBA '18
Since graduating with his degree in Studio Art and English in 2015, David has pursued a career as a museum educator while also working towards his doctoral degree. He is currently the Associate Curator of Education and Outreach at The Orlando Museum of Art (OMA), where he develops educational programs for learners of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. His experience as a Studio Art major instilled in him a belief in the power of art to effect societal change, and this belief informs his current passion for connecting audiences often underserved within traditional museum practice to the arts. In addition to his professional work at OMA, David is a Part-Time Instructor of Humanities at Valencia College’s Winter Park campus. He earned his MBA from the Crummer Graduate School of Business in 2018, and he is currently a PhD candidate in the University of Central Florida’s Texts and Technology program. His dissertation research considers through the lens of queer theory the oeuvres of three American art museum directors who administered noteworthy collections during the interwar period. During his time at Rollins, David was an Honors student and the process of writing a thesis about his studio practice prepared him to engage in rigorous academic research. He has presented on his professional work and scholarship at national and international conferences, and in 2019 was recognized as a National Endowment for the Humanities summer scholar. He welcomes opportunities to give back to the Rollins community by working with student interns either at OMA or through his volunteer work as a board member of the LGBTQ History Museum of Central Florida.