What Can I Do With an Art History Major
Fine art History Careers
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Art history majors study and analyze famous works of fine art, and fine art history programs teach skills related to enquiry, critical thinking, and communication. Graduates can pursue a variety of positions, including roles as curators, archivists, and professors.
On this page, readers tin can notice information about art history careers and salaries, resources for art history majors, and answers to frequently asked questions.
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Why Pursue a Career in Fine art History?
Graduates tin pursue many dissimilar careers with an art history degree, including jobs in museums, archives, and schools. Art history students gain analytical thinking and communication skills. Students also learn how to inquiry and evaluate artwork and historical documents.
Art history careers oft crave workers with potent organizational, planning, and artistic skills. Most of these careers take place predominantly indoors or backside a desk. Research positions require long periods of focused, independent work, while curator and educator jobs crave candidates with excellent interpersonal and advice skills.
Art History Career Outlook
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects 9% growth for archivists, curators, and museum workers between 2018 and 2028. These professionals make an annual median salary of $49,850. Job applicants usually need at to the lowest degree a available's degree, although some positions require a main's degree.
The table below displays the median annual salaries for a few common fine art history careers. This table explores salaries for different levels of experience, from entry-level workers to experienced professionals.
| Task Championship | Entry-Level (0-12 months) | Early Career (1-four Years) | Midcareer (5-9 Years) | Experienced (ten-xix Years) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fine art Teacher | $38,810 | $41,000 | $45,610 | $51,240 |
| Postsecondary Professor | $60,520 | $60,550 | $69,830 | $86,780 |
| Museum Curator | Due north/A | $42,830 | $50,480 | $60,000 |
| Fine art Gallery Curator | N/A | $43,380 | $49,480 | $50,180 |
Source: PayScale
Skills Gained With an Art History Degree
Art history programs help students develop skills that are applicable to fine art history careers and roles in many other fields. Analyzing art pieces by giving presentations and writing inquiry papers builds research, advice, and analytical abilities, while likewise introducing students to creative techniques, historic eras, and cultures from around the world.
Showroom designers, museum curators, art buyers, and bout guides can utilise this knowledge in museum and gallery positions.
Students learn to determine the creative person, era, and medium of a slice of art. Learners also examine pieces for meaning. These tasks develop analytical abilities that help fine art buyers and consultants estimate the value of art. Students also proceeds problem-solving skills they can apply in management positions.
To analyze a piece, students must consider small details of the piece of work. For case, color variations tin impact a piece of work's pregnant and architecture depicted in a painting can reveal the work's timeframe. This attending to particular can also help museum workers and fine art buyers inspect pieces for damage. This ability also benefits event planners, managers, and photographers.
Fine art history students oftentimes write papers and evangelize presentations on specific pieces, eras, artists, and regions. These assignments prepare learners for positions that require potent verbal and written advice skills, including roles as tour guides, art history writers, and museum curators. These skills also apply to careers in other disciplines, such equally public relations, spoken language writing, and news reporting.
Students perform research to decide cultural and historical elements in artwork. Conducting enquiry tin also help students improve empathise artists, connections between eras, and stories behind pieces, such as Greek myths in Renaissance works. Inquiry skills are useful in many fields.
Fine art history programs include explorations of fine art from various geographic areas, such every bit Greece, Rome, Spain, China, and the U.s.a.. Students explore global history and cultures, gaining knowledge they can apply to positions in art museums. This global sensation is too beneficial for public relations specialists and politicians.
Art History Career Paths
Art history programs may offer concentrations related to a single creative method, such as architecture, or an era, like the Middle Ages. Each concentration prepares students for specific fine art history career opportunities.
For example, students who program to oversee museums can pursue a museum studies concentration. Aspiring art consultants, on the other paw, can look for programs that focus on sure artistic eras.
Upon graduating, art history students tin can pursue careers as museum archivists, educators, and self-employed artists, among many other positions. Read on to learn more about how to brainstorm a career in this field.
How to Start Your Career in Art History
Many art history careers require a postsecondary degree. Some jobs, similar museum technicians, merely crave a bachelor's degree. Other professionals in the field, including archivists, curators, and conservators, need a chief'due south degree in art history or a related field. Additionally, most positions in postsecondary instruction crave a main'due south caste or higher.
Internships and volunteering can help young professionals notice their footing as they look for careers with an art history caste. Some employers may have professionals with a lower caste level if they have lots of practical feel in the field.
Associate Degree in Art History
An associate in art history qualifies graduates for positions as museum bout guides, photographers, and desktop publishers. The curriculum of an acquaintance programme also helps learners empathise aesthetics related to various types of artistry, such equally knitting, sculpting, cake decorating, quilting, and mode design.
Associate programs typically require virtually lx credits of general education and major courses. Full general education courses provide a solid foundation in the humanities and help learners fix for careers in many fields.
What Can You lot Do With an Acquaintance in Fine art History?
Photographers may take pictures to sell every bit artwork or contribute images to news pieces. These professionals may also manage portrait sessions at studios. Responsibilities ofttimes include designing sets for photograph sessions and editing photos with software. This career does not e'er crave a degree, only an associate in art history helps students develop applicable knowledge and skills.
Salary: $36,280
Desktop publishers develop layouts for print and virtual materials, such equally brochures and newspapers. These professionals may work with other designers and writers, and they use software to place images. This position requires an associate degree.
Salary: $45,390
Tour guides atomic number 82 groups through places of cultural or historic significance and provide information on settings and pieces. For example, museums may hire tour guides to explicate pieces of fine art and their historic context to customers. Aspiring art museum bout guides can earn an associate in art history to demonstrate their cognition of the field.
Bacon: $thirty,490
Bachelor's Degree in Art History
Art history bachelor's programs typically require about 120 credits and include several cadre fine art history courses. Learners explore more art history topics, techniques, and eras than students in acquaintance programs, gaining a deeper understanding of the field.
Bachelor's programs typically allow participants to take several elective courses, and they may also offering certifications and minors relevant to certain careers. For example, an aspiring art buyer may take finance electives.
Professionals with a bachelor'southward degree and sufficient feel ofttimes discover work as museum technicians, purchasing agents, and exhibit designers. Learners can also use their art history knowledge to plan events with creative or historic themes.
What Can You Do With a Bachelor's in Art History?
Museum technicians help maintain the safety of museum pieces. These professionals tend to insurance matters, assess the gamble associated with relocating pieces, and continue records. Technicians may also communicate with museums interested in borrowing pieces. This position ofttimes requires a available'southward degree in a field related to museum piece of work, such as art history.
Salary: $49,850
These planners manage events that reflect various consumer objectives. They consider budgets, schedules, locations, and meals for events similar weddings and business meetings. Museums may rent planners to launch new programs or exhibits. These positions typically crave a bachelor's caste.
Bacon: $50,600
Art directors communicate with clients before designing sets and publications. These professionals may build budgets, lead other designers, make decisions about images and layouts, authorize finished pieces, and offer completed products to customers. Organizations often require art directors to hold a bachelor's caste.
Bacon: $94,220
These designers develop exhibits that fulfill specific purposes. For case, an art museum's showroom may showcase works connected to a certain artist or time period. Designers typhoon showroom structures using software, manage installation details, and ensure that exhibits remain in working order. Showroom designers typically need a bachelor'south caste.
Salary: $48,970
These workers manage the buying and selling of products for companies, such as art pieces for museums. These professionals identify trustworthy sellers, decide on pricing, create contracts, and proceed records. A bachelor's in art history helps students develop noesis nigh sure artistic periods and works, which prepares them to perform these tasks for art museums.
Salary: $69,600
Master's Caste in Art History
Career options expand for art history majors who earn a master's degree. These programs help learners develop an in-depth agreement of the field, qualifying them for positions as museum curators and archivists. Master's students often complete a capstone, such as a thesis or a project.
Master'south degree-holders can likewise shape art curricula for K-12 schoolhouse districts, which requires advanced research skills and art history knowledge. Art history master's programs besides train students to make connections between art and civilisation and gain insights into by civilizations, which is a necessary skill for sociologists.
What Tin can You Do With a Principal'southward in Art History?
Archivists manage and organize records for museums. They may also oversee museum programs, guide museum employees working on exhibits, and create policies regarding museum pieces. These professionals typically need a master's in a relevant field, such as history or archival science.
Salary: $53,950
Curators manage museum pieces and objects. Responsibilities include buying new items and coordinating exhibits. Curators may communicate with other museums about lending pieces, oversee museum research, and deed equally a spokesperson at events. Curators typically need a primary's caste in a relevant field, including art history.
Salary: $54,570
Conservators maintain museum records and brand decisions on piece conservation. They often work with technology, such every bit X-ray machines, to determine each piece'southward needs. Conservators may also research and write on field topics and assist with museum programs. These professionals demand a chief'southward in conservation or a similar bailiwick.
Bacon: $44,430
Instructional coordinators analyze information to determine learning needs for school districts. Coordinators offer advice on teaching techniques, curriculum alterations, grade materials, and new technologies. They may likewise oversee kinesthesia workshops. Graduates of art history master's programs tin can perform these tasks for courses related to their field.
Salary: $66,290
Sociologists explore the behavior of individuals and groups through inquiry and experimentation. These professionals publish findings in books, scholarly journals, and online manufactures. Students earning an fine art history master'southward degree prepare for this position by examining the culture, history, and meaning in artwork. Sociologists typically need a primary's degree.
Salary: $83,420
Doctoral Caste in Fine art History
A doctoral caste is the highest level of education and typically requires students to complete a dissertation on an art history topic. Dissertation requirements may involve taking several research classes and giving an oral defense.
A doctoral degree qualifies graduates to teach at universities and oversee higher departments. Doctoral degree-holders authorize for some of the most lucrative art history careers, which can be extremely competitive. A doctoral degree can also help applicants stand out when pursuing positions with lower educational requirements.
What Can Yous Exercise With a Doctorate in Art History?
The responsibilities of postsecondary education administrators vary based on their specific position. Administrators may work as deans and provosts, disposed to budgets and policies. Depending on the position, higher education administrators mostly crave a master's or doctorate.
Salary: $95,410
Postsecondary educators teach college courses within their field of study. These educators create syllabi, provide feedback on educatee assignments, and offer guidance on course registration. Professors may also suggest curriculum changes to their section and publish scholarly pieces. Colleges and universities typically require postsecondary teachers to agree a doctorate.
Bacon: $79,540
How to Accelerate Your Career in Fine art History
Employers often consider experience when awarding promotions. However, professionals tin can take advantage of other methods to move their career forrad. For case, earning additional education or certification can make an art history professional more than desirable to employers. This can also lead to a higher bacon.
In the following sections, readers can discover data about how to advance their art history careers. Readers tin larn almost certification and licensure opportunities, continuing educational activity, and other future steps to take.
Certifications
The Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA) provides certification for professional archivists, including art historian archivists. ACA requires that candidates accept an test nigh archival practices and standards. The organization charges an examination fee and a certification fee for candidates who laissez passer the exam.
Certification lasts five years, after which professionals must renew their credentials.
Continuing Education
Standing education offers professionals a chance to advance their skills or learn more well-nigh their field without needing to return to school and earn some other caste. Fine art history professionals can find continuing education courses through professional organizations and museums.
Most continuing education programs utilise to specific careers. For example, museum curators tin find continuing education opportunities with the Center for Curatorial Leadership, while art teachers tin can find options through online programs, customs colleges, and universities.
Next Steps
Art history professionals looking to advance their careers should look for opportunities to amend their skills and make new connections. Some workers join professional organizations, which oft offering resource, conferences, standing teaching opportunities, and certification.
While professionals typically pay for membership, the benefits of joining a professional organization can far outweigh the toll. In particular, professional person organizations provide opportunities for networking with peers and leaders in the field.
How to Switch Your Career to Fine art History
Some art history professionals, such as art history archivists and museum technicians, must hold degrees in art history. Professionals in these careers need actual art history cognition to deport out their jobs finer.
Other positions, such equally full general archivists, museum curators, and educators, may permit more than flexibility when it comes to entering the field. Bachelor's and graduate degrees in the humanities or communication may interpret well.
Professionals because a career change should carefully appraise the skills and cognition they need for their desired job before deciding how to proceed.
Where Can Y'all Work as an Art History Professional?
Fine art history cognition is applicable to many careers in museums, and the degree provides an understanding of aesthetics to help graduates develop new art.
Students too gain insights into celebrated eras, which can prepare them for teaching careers and for positions advising individuals and organizations on art purchases. Graduates can also help theatrical companies choose realistic costumes, settings, and stage props for period plays.
When choosing a schoolhouse, learners should consider which industry they plan to enter to ensure their plan offers relevant grooming.
Colleges and universities educate students in a variety of fields, including art history. Depending on their pedagogy level, graduates can teach art history courses or work every bit authoritative assistants, deans, and provosts.
These sites familiarize the public with culture and history by showcasing artistic pieces from different eras and geographic locations. Art history graduates can work equally museum curators, technicians, purchasing agents, and tour guides.
These fields focus on developing public awareness of products and services, along with fostering relationships between companies and consumers. Art history graduates can perform these tasks for museums, historical sites, and galleries.
Performing arts companies put on productions, including plays, ballets, magic shows, and concerts. These companies may consult art history graduates when designing costumes and sets for historic pieces.
This industry includes various types of art, such as writing and music. Art history graduates with a solid agreement of aesthetics tin can excel in these positions. Professionals can as well employ their art history cognition to create pieces that explore past cultures and ideas.
Interview With a Professional in Art History
Megan Mahn Miller
Designated every bit a principal personal property appraiser by the National Auctioneers Association, Megan Mahn Miller earned a bachelor'southward degree in art history from the University of Minnesota. Mahn Miller began her career working for nonprofit organizations supporting the arts. In 2006, Mahn Miller joined Julien'due south Auctions -- an internationally renowned auction business firm of rock and roll and Hollywood memorabilia.
Mahn Miller attended the Reppert School of auctioneering in 2009. In 2014, Mahn Miller established Mahn Miller Commonage Inc. to provide appraisal and consultation services beyond the sale house.
Mahn Miller continues to work with Julien'south equally a consulting sales specialist. She has likewise taught an appraisal study writing course for the National Auctioneers Association and is a contributor to the WorthPoint newsletter.
Initially, I thought I would written report anthropology with an emphasis on art. My freshman year, I took classes in both and information technology turned out my aptitude was in art history. Anthropology became the accent.
At that time, in the early 1990s, students were beingness told that having a liberal arts degree was all that mattered -- that your actual caste subject was secondary. In one way, that was very freeing because I had no thought what I was going to do with my degree, but [information technology was] very unsupportive in another. I had to brand a special attempt to detect internships and outside projects to build credentials while studying. Art has always been important to me, only it took time to figure out how to make information technology a career.
How to say this delicately… in that location are a lot of people who don't take this degree seriously. And that is unfair. The written report is rigorous and tin incorporate many different areas of study. My personal interest was the intersection of women'southward studies and fine art. The connections to other subjects are endless.
The business of art is evolving; how art is sold, what is bought, who is buying. This creates a lot of fear from people who have been in the business and only worked in 1 fashion. It creates opportunities for young people inbound the field to innovate.
I was very lucky that when I graduated -- jobs were easily obtained. I started at a museum in an entry-level position. After, I moved into arts programming on a community level. It was helpful for me to observe how I wanted to incorporate my degree into my job. I enjoyed teaching, something I discovered while assisting on a project at our campus museum. Getting art out to the public was a passion. Once I understood that, it informed my job search.
To be honest, I take been called a unicorn. Information technology would exist helpful for someone undertaking this caste to have a clear idea of what they want to do with it.
I thought I was going to terminate up in academia. As a student, that was all I knew. Academia is a great choice, simply the reality is at that place are not that many positions for professors.
A person with an art history degree can work at an auction house or museum, simply yous should know what capacity you are interested in.
If it is curating, what specifically draws you lot to that position? If information technology is business evolution for an auction house, what courses volition y'all accept in order to complement your degree? If you want to correspond artists or open a gallery, volition yous know how to become funding or clients? If you want to restore artwork, where will you study later completing your degree?
I have met very few people whose career paths followed a straight line -- and thank goodness. You will learn so much forth the fashion. My path was winding, and in the finish information technology was luck that brought me to appraising.
At the same time, an art history student needs to take control of their destiny. Their degree is not going to be enough. Internships, informational interviews, and connecting with people whose jobs they retrieve they want will put them in a meliorate position to get hired one time they leave school.
I worked as a holding specialist at an sale business firm for 12 years. I loved it, merely it stopped being challenging. I was getting feedback from my peers and mentors that appraising was something I could and should pursue.
You don't need to open your own business to exist an appraiser. It was the right choice for me. There are a number of careers in art history that lend themselves to beingness a solopreneur, but it isn't anybody's fate.
What I primarily want to do every day is research. That is my passion. I savor that each assignment I take is different, and so I am always learning. When I was working at the sale house, I loved how every twenty-four hours was different and the excitement of the auctions.
As a solopreneur, my job is challenging because I am non but the appraiser but also the receptionist, business developer, and webmaster. At the auction house, the deadlines were a challenge, as were the multiple ways that a consignor or buyer can be disappointed.
Find out most every bit many possible careers as possible where you can use your degree. Become internships. Talk to people in the industry or at the corporation where you desire to piece of work. Find complementary disciplines to report that volition make you more attractive for the position you want. Don't get frustrated if your career trajectory isn't a straight line.
Don't be afraid to ask for assistance. Notice a mentor who will encourage you and assistance you grow professionally.
Resources for Art History Majors
Art history professionals can take advantage of educational and professional resources to advance their careers.
Below, readers tin can observe information about art history resources for educators, curators, and researchers. These resources feature professional person organizations and postsecondary institutions and include athenaeum of art history sources and professional conferences.
College Fine art Association of America: CAA focuses on the visual arts and delivers an annual conference and international programs. The clan provides links to various publications and all-time practices. Members tin can scan open careers through an online career center.
Association of Art Museum Curators: AAMC educates the public on the responsibilities of a curator. The group provides several resources, including a forum for educational discussions and information on programs, fellowships, and internships. Members can speak at the association's annual briefing and scan career opportunities through the website. The association also offers workshops related to curation and webinars on management, technology, and social media.
Art History Educational activity Resources: Through this system's website, art history educators can find lesson plans on specific eras, including Byzantine, Greek, Roman, medieval, and Renaissance fine art. Visitors tin can as well browse resources related to museum experiences and book recommendations. AHTR likewise connects professionals with journals, blogs, and workshops.
Yale University Library: This library provides art history databases that focus on art, architecture, drama and theater studies, and general humanities. However, users may need split up accounts to admission articles through sure databases, such as JSTOR. The website also links visitors to WorldCat, where they tin detect local libraries offer particular books.
JSTOR: Through JSTOR, users can access scholarly east-books and articles on multiple topics. Fine art history students tin find sources on Asian, ancient, and medieval art. Many schools provide students with JSTOR admission. Learners without schoolhouse access tin can annals for an individual account.
Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Met offers classroom resource that cover multiple eras and cultures, such as the ancient Near Eastward, the Renaissance, and Byzantine fine art. The Met also provides exhibitions and programs for elementary, center, and loftier schoolhouse students. Teachers tin can participate in museum workshops, attend events, and browse art history publications through the website.
Massachusetts Art Education Clan: MAEA provides resource related to art education, advocacy, and fine art history. The group likewise delivers exhibits on topics such as art teaching and photography. Members tin can asking conference workshops, and the website provides information about career opportunities and land licensure.
SECAC: Formerly known as the Southeastern College Art Conference, SECAC focuses on visual arts at the postsecondary level. The organization hosts a conference and publishes a semiannual newsletter and a journal called Fine art Inquiries. Its website includes reviews of exhibitions and a listing of job openings.
Association of Historians of American Art: This association focuses on American art, start before colonization. AHAA participates in CAA'south annual conference and delivers its own symposium every ii years. The system also publishes a journal. Members do good from networking opportunities, including a directory and a syllabus-sharing tool. Members tin can also access online volume reviews.
Renaissance Gild of America: The RSA focuses on culture and history from the years 1300-1700. The lodge offers an almanac conference and accepts proposals for event seminars. The RSA publishes a periodical and works with the Digital Humanities Summertime Institute to provide financial assist to students. The order also delivers fellowships and a mentoring plan for individuals who are new to the field.
Tangible Things - Harvard: This course explores history through artwork, artifacts, and scientific specimens. Students acquire almost museum curation through an examination of historical and artistic items collected by Harvard University. The course explains how museum collections can shape academic disciplines and reinforce cultural ideas.
Hollywood: History, Industry, Art - University of Pennsylvania: Students explore the history of film and how the industry of Hollywood has grown and changed over the years. This course demonstrates how globe events are reflected through the art of pic. Students also learn about the engineering that advanced and shaped this art form, from color cinematography to calculator-generated special effects.
Inspiring and Motivating Arts and Civilisation Teams - University of Michigan: The Academy of Michigan presents this course through its business schoolhouse in collaboration with National Arts Strategies. The grade teaches valuable skills in motivation and communication. Students also learn to effectively present ideas and inspire team members to produce desired results.
Arts and Culture Strategy - University of Pennsylvania: This class helps develop effective leadership among professionals with careers in the arts. Students acquire to develop and pb arts organizations in a sustainable style. Those who terminate the course earn a document of completion.
Art History - Journal of the Clan for Art History: This periodical publishes essays about new methods and areas of business organisation in the field of art history. The journal goes to print 5 times a year and takes submissions from established and emerging art history scholars. Readers can subscribe online or in impress.
Oxford Art Periodical: This publication offers disquisitional works about fine art history topics. The journal includes articles about art beyond all disciplines and eras. Readers tin can find pieces that offer political analysis of visual art and essays offering critiques of fine art and civilisation across the world. Readers tin subscribe online or in print.
The Fine art Bulletin: Published by the College Fine art Clan of America, this journal prints scholarly essays nearly art history practices in museums, universities, and other institutions. The publication as well offers peer-reviewed articles about art history topics across time periods and styles. This journal goes to impress four times a year and encourages debate most the contemporary practice of fine art history. Readers can subscribe online or in impress.
Oft Asked Questions
Art history majors tin pursue piece of work as museum curators, researchers, archivists, and educators. Graduates with an art history background can likewise find careers in concern.
Salaries for fine art history careers differ depending on a worker's job title, experience level, location. However, the BLS reports that the median annual salary for archivists, curators, and museum workers is $49,850.
Many customs colleges and four-year universities offer on-campus and online art history programs. Students may pursue an associate, bachelor'southward, master'due south, or doctoral degree in this field.
Art history degrees provide essential skills related to creative and analytical thinking, organization and inquiry, management of resources, and communication. Graduates may utilise these skills to earn a task in art history or branch out to other fields, such equally business and education.
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