The Department of Art History and Art offers opportunities to study art history, to participate in a broad range of studio offerings and to engage in pre-professional museum training. The Bachelor of Arts degree is granted in art history and in pre-architecture. 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 the Doctor of Philosophy in art history.
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, The Cleveland Institute of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.
The Cleveland Museum of Art/CWRU Art History 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.
News
Professor Elina Gertsman Awarded Distinguished University Professor at Convocation
Congratulations to our very own Professor Elina Gertsman for her appointment as Distinguished University Professor, the highest distinction granted to faculty at CWRU. Professor Gertsman is not only the youngest faculty member at CWRU to ever be awarded this title—she is also the first professor from our department and the second woman in all of the humanities. Read more and see more photos by clicking below!
Photography Minor and Classes
Please click on the following link to learn more about our Photography Minor and classes!
Undergraduate Research Showcase
Please join us for the annual Undergraduate Research Showcase on Friday, April 19 from 12:45-2:00 in Mather 100. Refreshments will be served!
Sarah Lavin to join Winterthur program in Art Conservation at the University of Delaware
We are thrilled to announce that Sarah Lavin, MA class of 2023, will be joining the prestigious Winterthur program in Art Conservation at the University of Delaware this fall! Sarah held positions in conservation at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Intermuseum Conservation Association and attended the San Gemini School of Preservation Studies in Italy. Congratulations Sarah!
Zoe Appleby wins the 2024 Vagantes Prize!
Congratulations to Zoe Appleby, second-year PhD student in medieval and Byzantine art, whose paper, "Materials in Dialogue with an Aqueous Landscape: Marble, Glass, and Shell in San Vitale, Ravenna," won the 2024 Vagantes Paper Prize! Her work was praised by the selection committee for its complexity, depth, originality, and...
The International Center for Medieval Art News just published a wonderful feature penned by Reed O’Mara and Ariella Har-Even on their FUSE collaboration — with a great shoutout to the department, our medieval studies program, GAMS, and our marvelous colleagues at the CMA. Many of us benefited from the fantastic enameling workshop Ariella and Reed masterminded, and we look forward to more!
Ruth Bryant’s, Vivian Lewis’s, and Maddy Fox’s Papers Accepted into the 2024 SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium
Ruth’s paper, “Analyzing the Torah Shield: Understanding the Abundance of Animal Imagery through the Zohar,” aims to explain the unusual presence of abundant animal imagery on a Boston MFA Torah shield through the relevance of the Zohar. Vivian’s paper, “Royal Family Feud: Cordelia Parting from her Sisters as a Pre-Raphaelite Social Commentary,” delves into Ford Madox Brown’s 1854 painting Cordelia Parting from her Sisters, now housed at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Maddy’s paper, “The Adoption of Aesthetics: Borrowing Byzantium and Looking West in the Russian Romanesque,” seeks to address and expand the notion of amalgamation between the Byzantine and European tradition in Slavic architecture during the 12th century.
Professor Elina Gertsman Awarded Expanding Horizons Interdisciplinary Grant
Congratulations to Professor Elina Gertsman, who was awarded a large Expanding Horizons Interdisciplinary grant for her project that aims to build a series of interconnected mixed-reality spaces -- spaces that would provide multisensory, embodied experiences for its users. Entitled "Immersive Realms and Cognition: Multisensory Approaches to Teaching with The HoloLens,"...
Julius Fund Lecture in Medieval Art: Jeffrey F. Hamburger, “Flesh and Fabric”
Please join us for the Julius Fund Lecture in Medieval Art, to be delivered by Prof. Jeffrey Hamburger (Harvard University) on April 3 at 5 PM. Prof. Hamburger will speak about the striking painting by Pietro Lorenzetti; his talk, titled "Flesh and Fabric," will take place at 5 PM...