Grinnell College - Department or Art: Art History Text Only

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 connection 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, 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 they graduate from college -- a rare opportunity indeed.
Our rigorous curriculum produces very successful students, in and beyond Grinnell College. Two of the first four postbaccalaureate fellows at the Grinnell College Humanities Center have come 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). 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 Ph.D.'s at University of California, Berkeley, University of Indiana, University of Kansas, Stanford University, and Yale University -- where we have a cadre of three Grinnellians.