Art History
MASTER OF ARTS
Situated in the heart of the culturally rich city of Washington, DC, the Master of Arts (MA) program in Art History at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design provides students with unique opportunities to study the arts. Students learn to apply visual and historical analyses to artworks, as well as incorporate relevant and current theoretical and methodological approaches to research. The program's proximity to DC’s many museums and galleries means that the permanent collections and exhibitions of some of the most important art institutions in the world often serve as the backbone of student coursework and study. The curriculum covers a wide swath of the history of art, but has specific areas of focus in Renaissance, Baroque, Islamic, South Asian, African, American, and modern and contemporary art. We are committed to building and nurturing a diverse and inclusive scholarly community that is critical for innovation, insight, and progress. The rigorous and supportive scholarly program places special emphasis on developing individual students’ critical analysis, research, and writing skills.
For some students, the MA is a terminal degree in preparation for curatorial or education careers in galleries and museums; for others, it is preparation to enter a PhD program elsewhere.
INFORMATION SESSIONS
Date: Thursday, September 26, 2024
Time: 7:30-8:30 p.m. ET
Location: Online
Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Time: 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET
Location: Online
Date: Thursday, January 9, 2025
Time: 7:30-8:30 p.m. ET
Location: Online
PROGRAM OF STUDY
The program includes 36 credit hours of graduate coursework that covers a range of topics and geographic regions. During the first semester, students are required to complete the art historiography seminar (CAH 6258). Students have the option, though it is not required, of taking a language/reading comprehension examination in Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Latin, Persian, Portuguese, or Spanish. As many as 6 credits of graduate coursework may be completed outside the department with approval of the graduate advisor.
Qualifying Paper
A qualifying paper is the capstone of the final year of study. A first draft is submitted during the fall semester of the second year, or after completing 18 credits; the final draft is due the following spring semester. All qualifying papers are reviewed by a panel of full-time faculty members. Please view the CAH Graduate Student Handbook (PDF) for more information on guidelines.
Museum Training Concentration
Master of Arts degree candidates have the option to concentrate in Museum Training. Prerequisites and requirements are the same as those for the Master of Arts in Art History; students include in their coursework 6 credits of CAH 6299 (Museum Internship), after completion of 18 credits of art history courses.
ADMISSIONS
To be considered for admission to the program, a bachelor’s degree is required in the humanities or other appropriate field, such as art history, fine arts, anthropology, archaeology, history, literature, museum studies, gender studies or religion. Applicants must also submit:
- Two (2) Letters of Recommendation;
- 250-500 word Statement of Purpose discussing research interests, academic objectives, and relevant professional experience;
- Transcripts from all colleges and universities attended;
- Curriculum Vitae
- Writing Sample between 15 and 25 pages in length.
MA Art History applications are accepted for fall entrance only.
COSTS & FUNDING
The Student Accounts Office provides up to date cost information on our program. The program has a number of support packages that it offers to select students, and students are automatically considered as part of the application process. Incoming MA Art History students are eligible for a number of scholarships, based on merit and need. You may also find fellowships through the Office of Graduate Student Assistantships and Fellowships. The Office of Student Financial Assistance also has more information on aid opportunities.
There are many resources available to assist in funding an education. Each year, MA Art History students receive a total of over $200,000 in support through scholarships and fellowships. Assistantships and fellowships are also awarded annually to entering and continuing students. Master of Arts candidates are eligible for Graduate Teaching Assistantships, including tuition, salary and stipend. Additional departmental assistantships and awards range from approximately $3,000 to $15,000 per year.
History of the Program
Courses in Art History at George Washington University were an early and significant component of the curriculum. Founded in 1821 and predating the Art History curricula of Princeton (1832), Yale (1869), and Harvard (1874), GW’s Art History program has evolved and reached maturation, while vigorously sustaining its core mission of providing students an exceptional education.
Students at the Corcoran have exhibited their work for more than 30 years, and in 2023, NEXT evolved into a festival format to encompass the diversity of all the school’s programs. Art history graduate students participate in a year-end symposium presenting their work, share projects on the NEXT site, and curate exhibitions as part of the NEXT Festival. See examples from past classes below.
STUDENT WORK
See examples from past classes’ culminating projects and work.
The Playful, Elusive Legacy of a Great Provocateur
Art history students learn about Marcel Duchamp while curating an exhibit showing his influence, taught by Professor Lisa Lipinski.
Bibiana Obler's Essays in Woven Histories and Expressionists
Professor Bibiana Obler’s essay, "Not Your Grandmother's Labor," is in the catalog for Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction, published in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art's exhibition. Obler has also recently published work in Expressionists: Kandinsky, Munter and the Blue Rider, which accompanies the Tate's exhibition.
ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTS
Melissa Katzin (MA ’15) is the Manager of Family Programs and Group Experience at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, where she has worked in various roles since 2017. She develops and implements family and teen programming, including free family days, early learner programs, and the museum’s teen advisory council. In 2023, she published the chapter “From Bellini to Basquiat: Equitable Education Practices in Encyclopedic Museums” in Museum Teen Programs How-To Kit.
Faye Gleisser (MA ’09) is Associate Professor of Art History at Indiana University, Bloomington. She recently published Risk Work: Making Art and Guerilla Tactics in Punitive America, 1967-1987 (University of Chicago Press, 2023). In her current research projects, Prof. Gleisser is exploring the intersection of representations of hormonal surges and dips, lens-based contemporary art, and the criminalizing of gestational bodies; as well as the form of artist residencies and the politics of care work that has unfolded alongside it.
Photo credit: Anna Powell Denton
Mary Savig (MA ‘08) is the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Her exhibition “Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women” is on view at the Renwick Gallery through January 25, 2025. Dr. Savig received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, and worked for many years at the Archives of American Art (starting when she was at GW).
Sarah Burns (MA '13)'s book, Transnational Frontiers: the American West in France (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018) analyzes appropriations of the American West in France in performance and visual and material culture.
RECENT ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS
Courtney Middleton (MA ’24) represented GW’s Art History Program at the annual Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art, which showcases MA and PhD students’ research from around the region. Middleton gave a paper grappling with complexities of the gaze in Mickalene Thomas’s Jet Blue series. While at GW, she interned at American Art and has since continued there as an editorial assistant.
While at GW, Grace Rodriguez (MA ‘24) served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for Professors Lisa Lipinski, Katherine Markoski, and Christopher Wilson; worked as a research assistant for the Luther W. Brady Gallery; interned at Hillwood Museum and Estate where she developed a database on the history of textiles in the collection; and was a Visitor Services Associate at the Phillips Collection. Her qualifying paper, supported by a departmental travel grant, focused on Jacqueline Kennedy’s use of dress—specifically drawing on Classical allusions—to consolidate U.S. imperial power.
Jason Rosenberg (MA ’24), first came to GW as an undergraduate majoring in Art History & Political Communication; however, after four years of study, his passion for the arts inspired him to continue pursuing his educational journey as a combined BA/MA student. In addition to his work as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, Jason has enjoyed spending his time in D.C. working as a Curatorial Intern at the Phillips Collection and learning more about the contemporary art market through his hands-on work with the local art appraisal firm Artemis.
Graduates of the Art History Program have gone on to work at:
- National Gallery of Art
- Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden
- The Phillips Collection
- Washington Project for the Arts
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- National Portrait Gallery
- Bonhams
- Sotheby's
- Nasher Museum at Duke University
- GW/Textile Museum
- Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens
- Dumbarton Oaks
- Transformer DC, and many more archives, museums, galleries, auction houses, universities across the globe.
UPCOMING EVENTS
News Highlights
Welcome to GW!
July 16, 2024
Ten scholars from an array of disciplines were recruited by the university to join Columbian College’s roster of permanent full-time faculty members this year. They include noted historians, authors, scientists and practitioners in numerous fields.
The Playful, Elusive Legacy of a Great Provocateur
March 24, 2024
GW art history students learn about Marcel Duchamp while curating an exhibit showing his influence.
From Abstract Expressionism to Art in the Age of Terror
April 4, 2023
Alexander Dumbadze welcomes GW students into the grand conversation of art history (and democracy).