ART HISTORY
The art history section of the Art Department is small but dynamic. Our regular, full-time faculty (Jenny Anger, Timothy Chasson, Susan Strauber) teach approaches to art that range from object-centered analysis and social history to contemporary critical theory. We enjoy a close relationship with the Faulconer Gallery, whose director, Lesley Wright, teaches a regular course on museum studies. This course supplements a longstanding tradition of our department: the exhibition seminar, wherein students curate a professional exhibition using objects in the Grinnell College Art Collection, including the writing of a catalogue, over the course of one semester. This experience leaves our students with a publication in their own name by the time the graduate from college - a rare opportunity indeed.
Further options expand students' horizons in traditional and new areas. We look forward to welcoming Theresa Geller to teach Film History and Theory in the English Department in 2008-09. Greek and Roman art and archaeology may be studied through the Classics Department, where Monessa Cummins continues a tradition established decades ago by Gerald Lalonde. Many of our majors take advantage of study abroad programs, usually during part of their junior year. Favored sites for a semester's study have been London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Florence, and Rome. Over the years the college's Scholars Convocation series has included prominent art historians: in the past, Richard Barnhart, James Cahill, and Ellen Laing - all in Chinese art; more recently, David Carrier - on art writing and criticism; James Cuno, Director of the Art Institute of Chicago was. During these visits, in addition to attending a public presentation for the campus community, students can interact with these scholars when they visit selected art history classes and participate in discussions in the Faulconer Gallery.
Competitive internships are available for juniors and seniors during the academic year at the Faulconer Gallery and the Des Moines Art Center, with its important collection of contemporary art. During the summer, students often obtain internships at commercial galleries and museums in major cities. Recent examples include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Los Angeles County Art Museum.
Our rigorous curriculum produces very successful students at and beyond Grinnell. Two of the first four postbaccalaureate fellows at the Grinnell College Humanities Center came from art history. From 2000-05, art history concentrators wrote three of the College's annual Phi Beta Kappa senior essay awards (a highly coveted prize at a college that emphasizes the value of writing). During the same period, three other students wrote theses on topics in art history as part of a concentration in Medieval and Renaissance area studies to supplement their art history major. Our graduates also regularly gain entrance to the strongest art history graduate programs in the country. Although we graduate only an average of five students a year, we currently have alumni working toward their PhDs at the University of California at Berkeley, University of Delaware, Indiana University, University of Kansas, Bryn Mawr College, Duke University, Stanford University, and Yale University - where we have a cadre of four Grinnellians.
