What You Will Learn

Global Citizenship

Since the art history curriculum will expose you to the visual arts of nearly every corner of the globe, our courses offer ideal opportunities for you to envision your role as a global citizen . The arts are closely connected to other aspects of culture, requiring you to engage regularly with other disciplines, including the performing arts, archaeology, anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, political science, religion, sociology, and language study.  This kind of holistic examination of global visual culture will expose you to the depth and variety of global cultures.  You will often immerse yourself in the cultures whose visual culture you have experienced in the classroom via study abroad programs.

Responsible Leadership

Focusing on visual and material production,  you will gain an awareness of how different societies have visualized their identities, values, and histories.  You will strengthen your visual literacy skills, and develop the strong critical thinking, writing, research, argumentation, and presentation skills that are key for the responsible leadership goal of the college’s mission.  

Productive Careers

Art history’s expansive reach provides a rigorous, broad-based foundation in the liberal arts that positions you to meet rapidly changing opportunities of the 21^st-century workplace.  The art history faculty are dedicated to mentoring you, helping you find internships, study abroad opportunities, and post-graduate study.  We encourage our majors to apply for our department’s scholarships and travel grants to fund independent or collaborative research. In the Senior Capstone course, you will research and curate an exhibition at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum providing a practical, hands-on experience in a field connected to your major.  The faculty also ensure that you will understand the relevance of the transferable skills gained from studying art history, especially research, writing, and critical thinking. Besides employment in museums, galleries, auction houses, arts administration, and education, our graduates have gone on to successful careers in law, grant-writing, media and publishing, and digital humanities. 

Meaningful Lives

The visual analytical skills acquired through training in Art History provide a foundation for the exploration of images throughout a lifetime and allow you to become a lifelong student of art well beyond your time on campus.  This goes far beyond simply being able to appreciate masterpieces of art to understanding its ability to critique society and argue for social change.

Global Citizenship

In our courses you will be challenged to deeply engage with the world in the very broadest sense through careful study of historic and contemporary art movements that are inherently global in nature. Studio Art courses educate you and your fellow students for global citizenship by exposing you to international artists whose practices engage with socio-political, spiritual, cultural and philosophical content, provoking the development of ethical perspectives in the consideration and creation of your own works. Our close relationship with The Cornell Fine Arts Museum offers ample opportunity for you to experience original works of art firsthand, introducing you to approaches and strategies that may inform your own practice.

Responsible Leadership

The Studio Art major is not a concentration-based model. Our program encourages interdisciplinary experimentation between material components and theoretical emphases, ultimately broadening your basis for both the creation and analysis of works of art. As a developing artist you will refine your skills and learn a variety of techniques for producing works of art, expand your creative capacity, and develop critical and analytical judgment skills, key to the responsible leadership educational goal of the college’s mission. 

Productive Careers

You will engage in ongoing discourse about your work within the context of contemporary art and theory and other diverse sources from your liberal arts studies at Rollins College, while developing a professional studio practice culminating in the year-long Senior Capstone experience, in which you will create a body of work for a public exhibition at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum.

With an acute sense of cultural awareness and visual literacy, you will be prepared for advanced study at the graduate level and highly qualified to pursue creative careers in any number of fields.

Meaningful Lives

Understanding that a 21st century Studio Art program must demonstrate a willingness to evolve in relation to educational and cultural shifts, our faculty are committed to producing classroom and studio experiences that promote authentic critical exchange in keeping with current developments within the arts and society and that facilitate your lifelong engagement with the arts.