Resources in Art History for Graduate Students

Related Resources for Art History and Humanities Graduate Students

This page contains references to some frank opinions on graduate school in the humanities, discussions of current professional issues in art history, associations, job listings, and links to some art history departments.

Below this please find some study break material, most of which is rather less serious.

Index

Should You really go to Graduate School in the Humanities, particularly Art History?

This is a Modest Collection of Basic Information Sources for Those who wish Information about the Current State of Graduate School in the Humanities.

Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go

Part Two of the Harsh Wisdom of the above Author

The Ph.D. Problem. By Louis Menand. Published in Harvard Magazine, Nov./Dec. 2009. Read this before applying to any graduate school.

Making College 'Relevant'. By Kate Zernike from the New York Times, "Education Life" December 29 2009.

The Crisis of the Humanities Officially Arrives. By Stanley Fish. From the New York Times Opinionator, October 11, 2010.

We Need to Acknowledge the Realities of Employment in the Humanities. By Peter Conn. From the April 4, 2010 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, which contains several articles on the current situation of graduate humanities programs and their students.

SOME SOLUTIONS:

A Modest Proposal for the Reform of Academe "Rather than all the plum humanities positions going to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton alums, we would have a more meritocratic system where job searches would seek candidates with lesser pedigrees, but better-educated trigger fingers." Ken Mondschein, Ph.D. Plus links to considerations of other problems.

Alternative Careers for Art Historians
Charles Rosenberg's great (and rather more comforting) resource.

Some General Art History Publications--and Others that are Useful

American Association of University Professors Their "Journal of Academic Freedom" is aimed more at tenure-track and tenured professors, but peruse it once in a while to get an idea about current problems. Each issue also carries a list of colleges and universities condemned for bad behavior. Realize that the employment ads at CAA aren't going to tell you about this.

The Art History Newsletter

Art News. More US-based, more modern and contemporary art.

Art Newspaper International art news.

Artdaily

Association of Art Historians "The Association was formed in the UK in 1974 to promote the study of art history. It represents the interests of art and design historians in all aspects of the discipline, including art, design, architecture, photography, film and other media, cultural studies, conservation and museum studies." From their Home Page. Also has links to some UK museums, the Times and other UK newspapers.

The Chronicle of Higher Education Very useful and informative publication; many helpful articles dealing with all sorts of issues.

College Art Association Consider subscribing to this for a few years although its responses to critical problems in the field--or lack of same--can be irritating.

Job Hunting in Art History

The Chronicle of Higher Education They seem to have a lot of jobs. (well, relatively...)

College Art Association Fewest jobs--apparently they are the most expensive place to post--but they are almost all full-time. Note that they frequently leave up announcements that have actually expired.

HigherEdJobs.com They seem to have the most jobs, but they include lots of part-time positions.

jobs.ac.uk Search here for jobs in the UK and Europe (sometimes posts US jobs but you'll see those first at the sites above this).

Art History Positions The low-down on what's happening in current searches by the candidates themselves.

Universities to Love Rationalizations from the rejected.

Unniversities to Fear Rationalizations from the rejected.

Art Dealer Is Charged With Stealing $88 Million I applied for a job with this fellow's gallery. Guess I was lucky to get turned down.

Pippin Michelli's Site on Art History

Art History Graduate Programs

I will list the Web site of any art history graduate program willing to send me its address.

• University of California Los Angeles
• Concordia University Montreal, Canada.
• The Courtauld Institute of Art
• Indiana University Art History Association
• University of Illinois, Chicago
• Institut fuer Kunstgeschichte Bern University.
• The Jewish Theological Seminary New York City. They have B.A. and M.A. programs in Jewish Art and Visual Culture.
• University of Notre Dame
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Pratt Institute They offer four different graduate programs in art history, three of which are dual degree programs: with the M.F.A.; with Library Science; and with Museum studies.
• University of Toronto Fine Arts Department.
• York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Special Florida Art History Graduate Schools Spot

• University of Florida Offers the M.A. and Ph.D. in art history.
• Florida State University Department of Art History An excellent site, by the way. Offers the M.A. and Ph.D. in art history.

Other Art History Sites of Interest

Assorted Non-Western Art History (and Related) Sites:

General Non-Western Sites

• WorldImages Digital images of art from all over the world, free to use. From San Jose State University.

Arts of Africa

• Art and Life in Africa Online From the University of Iowa.
• African Art: Aesthetics and Meaning An online exhibition, curated by Benjamin C. Ray at the University of Virginia.

Asian Arts

• The Palace Museum, Beijing
• Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
• Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Asian Art.
• The International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online
• The Chinese Association of Museums
• Museum of Chinese in the Americas Caution: a huge site.
• Arts of China Consortium Put together by Nixi Cura (and others), this is a fine collection of information about, among other things, opportunities for graduate students in the areas of Asian Art.
• Black Moon A huge Web site devoted to Japanese art of all periods.
• Ainu -- Spirit of a Northern People Formerly an online exhibition, now an online tour that includes a virtual exhibition, music, and more.

Islamic Art

I will begin posting links to such collections, many of which will be coming from Christiane Gruber's postings on her H-ISLAMART@H-NET.MSU.EDU listserv.

• The Islamic art collections of the Georgian National Museum. From Tbilisi, Georgia.
• Islamic Arts and Architecture
• Islamic Art, Music, And Architecture Around The World From the University of Georgia
• The Islamic Art collection at the Los Angeles Museum of Art
• The Islamic Art collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Art Museum Network A just-begun Web site; placed here temporarily.
• The Amazing BeeCam Remember that Bees Session at CAA in NYC a few years ago? Who was that art historian dressed up as a beekeeper?
• Africam Cameras set up at two watering holes in two national parks in South African.
• Simpsonizeme
• Arts & Letters Daily Read this instead of writing that chapter tonight.
• Angry? But years of research have depressed your verbal creativity? Try the Irish Insult Generator.
• The Postmodernism generator Just keep hitting the "reload" button to get another meaningless collection of jargon. Perfect for studying for those exams on critical theory.
• Random Quote Generator
• Lee's Useless Super-Hero [sic] Generator
• The Surrealist Compliment Generator
• Need a dissertation topic? How about the Art of Deliberately Concealed Garments?

For Your Mood in the Seminar

Bad Mood

• Rude Person? Get Off of My Cloud
• Paint It Black This, I believe, is from the Ed Sullivan Show. Check out Brian Jones. He gets more screen time here than in any of the other videos I've seen.
• Vaffanculo"Lo sa che cosa e' vero in un mondo di bugiardi."
• Vaffanculo: banana version
• Sympathy for the Devil The Altamont version.
• God's Gonna Cut You Down

Good Mood

• Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi meet Leonardo da Vinci In "quasi Mille Cinque."
• Massimo Troisi sings 'Yesterday'
• Buzzin' Fly
• I am Waiting
• All greet the professor thusly
• Waterloo Sunset The Kinks. Terry meets Julie Waterloo Station every Friday now...
• Lola That odd but interesting person in the seminar.
• Apeman I want to sail away to a distant shore...
• All Day and All of the Night Sometimes there are other things besides graduate school.
• Enas Mythos. Nana Mouskouri. The version from her 1971 album.
• The Wolf of Velvet Fortune The Beau Brummels. For years I tortured staff in many many music stores in Italy asking for this album (Triangle). Italy has been a good place to find old and out of print (press?) albums, you see...why this song hasn't been picked up for one of those teenage vampire movies, I cannot say.

Not Doing All That Well?

• Sunny Afternoon The Kinks. My girlfriend's run off with my car and gone back to her ma and pa telling tales of drunkeness and cruelty...
• Zabriskie Point. Also: this is the only good part of the movie, so now you don't have to go see the rest of it. You're welcome.

PROJECTS FOR THE SEMINAR

• Rickrolling. First a seminar presentation, then a 20-page paper.
• Your favorite painting comes to life. (Watch for adds)
• Run races with this new vehicle.
• Help the museum move. Turn down the volumne as the music is awful.
• You and your mates should build one of these.

• Once I Was
• Now that the Buffalo's Gone Buffy Sainte-Marie.
• Sympathy for the Devil. By Julian Milo. There are places worse than grad school.

Randy Newman Before He Went Soft

• My Old Kentucky Home I think these singers are Dutch.
• Short People ...got no reason to live.
• Sail Away ...won't have to run through the jungle and scuff up your feet...
• I Think It's Going to Rain Today. A bit over-produced in my humble opinion. Much prefer the version on the Smothers Brothers Show with the cop.
• God's Song "How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me."

Tom Lehrer

• Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
• The Vatican Rag
• The Elements This inspired me to go to graduate school(s). Lehrer himself ended up with a tenured position in mathematics at UC Santa Cruz. Satire--better than a book?

Above all, Never Give Up

• Susan Boyle
• Henry V

Other Art History Sites of Interest, if Not Renumeration

• The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit. "Come, travel with me, as I guide you on a tour through the fabulous and vanishing ruins of my beloved Detroit."
• 

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• Photos from "The B**bie Sessions by David Levinthal Describes a touring photograph exhibition. B**bie as fashion wench.
• B**bie Liberation
• More B**b**: B**bie Girl When you feel like dancing!
• B**bie in Gowns Dress up B**bie online.

  Please, what has happened to Dean Brown???

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• The World's Strangest Museums. Includes info. on how to really make Ramen noodles, from the Ramen Museum.
• The Museum of Bad Art
• Why is Mona Lisa Smiling? Another Art History Mystery solved (or is it?)
• Golden State Museum Sacramento, California.
• The Santa Cruz Surfing Museum Includes live, web cam views from Cowell Beach.
• The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum San Jose, California. Here as a child I learned that the sacred Egyptian word for cat was "meow."
• Victorian Preservation Association of Santa Clara Valley
• The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
• Art a GoGo An online art magazine from San Jose.
• The Art Historians' Guide to the Movies
• The Kooks Museum And you thought you had problems.
• Relics for Sale Heads of John the Baptist, and other goodies.

Political Campaigns

"Don't vote--it only encourages them" : Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884-1980)

"I can run the country or I can control Alice; I can't do both" : President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

Good sites:

• The Political Graveyard : A Database of Historic Cemeteries "The Web site that tells where the Dead Politicians are Buried."
• Suggestions for more, please....

"Oh, How They Lied: No One's Hired a Specialist in Eskimo Architectural Theory to a Tenure-Track Position in the US in the Last Fifty Years!"

Or, another take on Alternative Careers for Art Historians

• Librarianship
• Stand-Up Comedy
• Law School
• Homesteader
• Shoplifting

Too Many Critical Issues? Relax with Art History Quicktime Movies

• The Piero Project Princeton University. N.B.: This is a new link to a "World Wide Web" version of this famous site.
• Pisa Looking towards the Church complex.
• Pisa Piazza dei Miracoli.
• Pisa Cathedral Inside.
• Pisa Inside the Camposanto.
• Pisa Views of the Triumph of Death.
• The Forum of Rome
• The Pantheon.
• Movie Trailers Hours of fun.
• More Movie Trailers Film.com: trailers, reviews, new releases.
• The Velvet Underground

New Stuff: Not Going to Italy this Summer? Bring a Bit into Your Home.

• The 2009 Biennale di Venezia In English. Incredibly boring site. (Often a criticism of the event itself.)
• Marco Masini. Vaffanculo "Questa vita fa tutta da se'..."
• Zucchero The Official Web Site.
• 
• "La Vita e Bella" Benigni's movie.