Art History
The Art History area offers courses in the histories and theories of visual culture in North America and Europe . The area aims to provide a wide array of high quality classes for both the Art History and Studio undergraduate degree programs. Art History faculty have a significant presence in graduate education in the department, participating as supervisors and committee members in the MFA graduate program and in Special Case MA degrees in Art History. The Art History faculty includes five permanent faculty and a number of highly qualified sessional lecturers with diverse areas of expertise.
The discipline of Art History, like many other disciplines in the humanities, has in recent years undergone considerable transformations in the way it is formulated and taught. Responding to theoretical developments in such areas as cultural studies, postcolonial studies, Aboriginal studies and a decolonizing feminism, the discipline has re-orientated itself in the last two decades to address “a cultural politics of difference”(Cornel West ), foregrounding cultural openness and diversity rather than a closed monoculture.
In developing its course offerings, the Art History program has maintained its traditional offerings in Renaissance and Baroque art while, at the same time, developing new courses in such areas as First People's Art History; Postcolonial Issues in Contemporary Canadian Art; Digital Culture and the Internet; Contemporary Video and Performance Art; and Studies in Visual Culture, which explores how visual forms (from painting to film to the Internet and popular media) produce meaning in contemporary everyday life.
Aims and Objectives of the Art History Area
- To create a stimulating and supportive environment for intellectual work in the field of visual culture;
- To provide a wide choice of undergraduate classes for students majoring in art history who wish to pursue future careers as academics, researchers, curators, museum and gallery directors, conservators, artists, high and elementary school teachers, as well as administrators in the cultural sector;
- To provide required Art History courses for students in the Studio degree programs, including the BFA degree of which Art History forms a large component;
- To assist students to explore connections between studio work and the history and theory of art;
- To prepare students in the Studio and Art History programs for graduate work in this and other institutions;
- To create intellectual linkages and partnerships with the local arts community, in particular with the Aboriginal arts organization, Tribe;
- To build equity into the fabric of our teaching, addressing issues of race, gender, class and sexual orientation in course materials.
The area offers the following degrees : Honours Degree; B.A. Four Year; B.A. Three Year; Double Honours in Art History and Studio Art; and Double Honours in Art History and Another Subject.
First year introductory Art History courses with an enrollment limit of 100 students are taught in Room 299 of the Murray Building (lecture theatre below). Upper level courses, designed as a mixture of lectures, presentations and discussion group activity, utilize the Art History lecture/seminar room (292.2). In curriculum delivery, students are encouraged to attend visiting artist talks, exhibition openings and other events at gallery facilities on campus and within the larger arts community of Saskatoon.