Overview

Why Study Art History at Northwestern University?

Art History provides an excellent opportunity to develop the essential skills and talents that lie at the core of a good liberal arts education, including informed and critical reading, writing, and speaking. To these, it adds a particular attention to critical looking, building core skills in analyzing how the visual and physical qualities of buildings, images and objects can be used to communicate.

In art history, we study the art and architecture of cultures around the world and across the millennia. We take a variety of approaches to our objects, but focus on understanding their aesthetic and historical significance as well as their social relevance. We ask how people make meaning in visual terms and, in turn, how we read and understand a world that is largely presented to us as visual information. Since Chicago is fortunate enough to boast a large number of world-famous museum collections and some of the world’s most extraordinary architecture, many of our classes emphasize on-site study and field trips.

Art history studies the arts and architecture of the world from antiquity to the present. As art historians, we consider objects and buildings from multiple perspectives including but not limited to their visual and physical characteristics, their aesthetic and historical contexts, their use of technology and their relationship to science, and their ideological or social function. We also study individual artists or makers, cultural institutions, audiences, and intercultural exchanges. Because the field is inherently interdisciplinary, it is often in dialogue with work done in other departments such as anthropology, philosophy, political science, history, literature, film, performance, theater, and theories of race, gender, class, and sexuality.

Program highlights

As a key component of a liberal arts education, the study of art history emphasizes informed and critical looking, reading, writing and speaking. With its broad historical, cultural, geographic, and methodological range, it meets the needs of burgeoning specialists while it also offers an excellent formation for those who intend to specialize in other areas including business, education, international relations, law, medicine or politics. Those interested in the "classic" art history careers will generally find that museum (curatorial) work often requires at least a master's degree, while college and university teaching and research require a Ph.D. The major is an essential platform to those degrees.

Programme Structure

Courses include:

Ancient Art

European Art

Special Topics in Ancient Art: Monsters, Art, and Civilization

Modernism

Special Topics in Ancient Art: Constructing Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Baroque Art: Italy and Spain, 1600 to 1750

Key information

Duration

Full-time
- 48 months

Start dates & application deadlines

Starting 2027-09-23 00:00:00
- Apply before 2027-01-02 00:00:00

Language

English

Credits

45 alternative credits

units of credit

Delivered

On Campus

Campus Location

Evanston, United States

Disciplines

Art History View 850 other Bachelors in Art History in United States

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Academic requirements

We are not aware of any specific GRE, GMAT or GPA grading score requirements for this programme.

English requirements

We are not aware of any English requirements for this programme.

Other requirements

General requirements

Common Application or Coalition Application*
Official secondary school transcript and school report
Counselor recommendation
At least one teacher recommendation
SAT or ACT scores (OPTIONAL for 2020-22 cycle)
While there is no minimum score required by Northwestern, competitive applicants demonstrate a high level of English proficiency and typically score in the high range on all sections of the exams we accept.

Tuition Fees

Tuition fees are shown in and the most likely applicable fee is shown based on your nationality.

International Applies to you

Applies to you

Non-residents

69375 USD / year

≈ 69375 USD / year
Out-of-State

69375 USD / year

≈ 69375 USD / year
Domestic

Applies to you

In-State

69375 USD / year

≈ 69375 USD / year

Living costs

Evanston

United States

1100 - 1500 USD / month

The living costs include the total expenses per month, covering accommodation, public transportation, utilities (electricity, internet), books and groceries.

Funding

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Scholarships Information

Below you will find Bachelor's scholarship opportunities for Art History.

Available Scholarships

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