Masters Degrees in History of Art, Architecture & Design, USA

The goal of the M.A. in Modern and Contemporary Art and the Market is for students to acquire essential knowledge about art, the art market and their reciprocal relationship, while simultaneously building practical skills in preparation for careers in the art world. The program emphasizes the importance of direct contact with original works of art, and through the use of Christie's sale rooms and specialist staff, exploration of the history of art.

This interdisciplinary program provides an in-depth study of modern and contemporary art and its markets from the mid-19th century to the present day. Led by an expert faculty, the integrated program combines the development of connoisseurship skills through object-based learning and investigative cataloguing and writing, art history, knowledge of current art business practices and the market, and art market history. Students study art works first-hand in sites of production and exhibition throughout New York City and beyond. Additionally, access to specialists and salerooms through our central location at Christie’s auction house enhances the program and provides a unique and exceptional learning opportunity.

Our Unique Approach

Access to a wide range of art professionals provides students with first-hand knowledge of the workings of the art world, and the transferable skills they need to become art world professionals. An intensive program, it takes only 15 months to complete and concludes with the writing of a Master’s thesis and a mandatory 45-day internship to help students launch their professional careers.

Who should apply?

The program is designed both for students who have recently graduated with a B.A. in art history or a related humanities discipline and for career changers wishing to gain access to the art world. Students from a wide variety of fields have successfully merged their prior backgrounds with the program, launching successful careers at auction houses, galleries, non-profits, art fairs and art advisories upon graduation.

Student Learning Results

- Acquire the skills to identify different mediums and assess an art work’s condition
- Learn to describe works of art and situate them in art history
- Gain an insider’s understanding of the structure of the art world and the interplay between the commercial and non-profit sectors
- Develop transferable professional skills such as cataloguing, building a collection for a client, and critical writing
- Acquire knowledge of the workings of the auction house
- Gain art business and art market knowledge
- Identify and apply different methodological strategies used in interpreting contemporary art
- Develop facility with current research resources for art history and the art market
-For gainful employment disclosures visit this page http://www.christies.edu/new-york/gainful-employment.aspx

Admission Requirements

NOTES: Students enrolled in the Master of Arts in Modern and Contemporary Art and the Market are eligible for federal financial aid. International students enrolled in this program are eligible for F1 Student Visas. Details on how to apply for a visa are included in your admissions packet after being accepted into the program.

All admissions materials, including recommendation letters, must be submitted in hard copy to Christie's Education Admissions 1230 Avenue of the Americas, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10020.


- Completed admission application form
- Non-refundable application fee of $95
- Bachelor’s degree or the equivalent international degree
- Official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended. All transcripts, diplomas or academic records must be official documents issued by the college or university and provided in the original language in sealed envelope. Transcripts in other languages must be accompanied by English translations certified by official translation professionals or agencies
- All international transcripts must be accompanied by an equivalency report from World Education Services, WES.org
- Essay statement, 2–3 pages on why you are interested in the program
- Sample of writing, no more than 10 pages, which can be taken from undergraduate work
- Official GRE score report (optional)
- Official TOEFL scores report if applicable
- Three letters of academic or professional recommendation from writers who know the applicant’s abilities well. Letters should be sent in hard copy on letter head with original signatures
- Personal interview (by invitation only). Invitations will be sent once all application materials have been submitted

More information on program content, available resources and accreditation

Please visit this link http://www.christies.edu/new-york/courses/masters-modern-contemporary-art-markets.aspx

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For more than a decade and a half, Binghamton University has pioneered new approaches to art history. The graduate program in the history and theory of art and architecture aims to:
- foster innovative teaching and research
- develop scholars, teachers, museum curators, and planning professionals capable of interpreting the role of art, architecture, visual culture and cultural production in the broadest sense

The graduate program in the history and theory of art and architecture also offers students the unique opportunity to undertake innovative studies of a cross-disciplinary nature, with a stress on the development of critical theoretical and historical perspectives in relation to the visual arts, photography, architecture, planning and the wider built environment, at local, national and global levels.
Recent doctoral graduates are employed in permanent or postdoctoral positions at such institutions as the University of Pittsburgh, University of Richmond, American University of Beirut, and the University of South Carolina.

All applicants must submit the following:

- Online graduate degree application and application fee
- Transcripts from each college/university which you attended
- Three letters of recommendation
- Personal statement (2-3 pages) describing your reasons for pursuing graduate study, your career aspirations, your special interests within your field, and any unusual features of your background that might need explanation or be of interest to your program's admissions committee.
- Resume or Curriculum Vitae (max. 2 pages)
- Official GRE scores
- Writing sample, as a PDF file of no more than 30 pages or 8,500 words (it may be an excerpt from a longer piece of writing or MA thesis) to be uploaded along with the application.

And, for international applicants:
- International Student Financial Statement form
- Official bank statement/proof of support
- Official TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE Academic scores

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The joint MA degree in art history builds upon the combined resources of Alabama’s two premier institutions of higher learning: The University of Alabama and The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

One Program, Two Campuses

Students enroll on one of the two campuses and take the majority of their courses on that campus, but they also take 6 hours of art history on the other campus and have access to the library holdings (including in the visual arts) of both campuses.

An art history symposium offered each year on alternating campuses provides the students in the program with an opportunity to present a formal paper in an informal setting. A highlight of our annual symposium is the visit by a renowned art historian who participates by meeting the students and discussing the papers.

After Graduation

The MA degree in art history is an appropriate terminal degree for positions that are open in museums, galleries, libraries, and archives, and in the fields of teaching at the junior college level. Graduates of the program have secured positions in area museums, including the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Montgomery Museum of Arts and the Mobile Arts Museum, and as visual arts curators and teachers of art history in area colleges and universities, including Livingston College, Shelton State College, and Jefferson State College. Students interested in pursuing a teaching career at the University level are encouraged to continue their study of art history in a doctoral program; graduates of the joint MA program in art history have been accepted into the PhD programs of Rochester University, Emory University, Kansas University, and Florida State University.

Degree Requirements

The MA in art history requires completion of 24 semester hours in art history, a comprehensive exam, and a written thesis.

Coursework

The MA requires 24 semester hours of art history coursework, of which 6 hours may be taken in a related field, such as history, religion, or anthropology. Courses are grouped into seven general areas: Early Modern (Renaissance and Baroque), 19th-century, Modern, Contemporary, American (including African American) and South Asian.* Students must identify a major area and a minor area.

A required course, ARH 550, Literature of Art, is offered once a year on alternating campuses. A maximum of 6 hours of 400-level courses may be taken for graduate credit. Students enrolled on The University of Alabama campus must take 6 hours of coursework at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

*Students may take classes in South Asian art, but it cannot be their major field.

Comprehensive Exam

A reading knowledge of French or German must be demonstrated before the student is eligible to take the comprehensive written exam. The language requirement may be satisfied either by completing both semesters of the graduate reading proficiency sequence offered by the Department of Modern Languages and Classics or by scheduling a written exam with the appropriate language area in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics.

The student who has completed 24 semester hours of graduate coursework and satisfied the language requirement is ready to be examined in a written comprehensive exam administered in the fall and spring semesters. The written comprehensive exam is divided into two parts: (1) a slide exam that tests the student’s broad knowledge of the history of Western art, and (2) an essay portion that tests for expertise in two fields of concentration.

The student must declare intent to take the exam in writing to the director of graduate studies in art history at least one month prior to the exam date. At that time an exam committee is formed that includes at least two art history professors from the Tuscaloosa campus and one art history professor from the Birmingham campus. The committee members represent the two areas of concentration declared by the student. The committee evaluates the written exam and notifies the candidate of the results. An exam must be judged to be of at least “B” quality in order to be considered a pass. A student who does not pass the exam may take it once more at the normally scheduled exam time.

Thesis

The MA degree also requires a written thesis submitted to the Graduate School. In consultation with a professor, the student identifies a thesis topic. (Often, a thesis topic originates with a written seminar paper.) The thesis proposal is a brief statement of the topic for research, a summary description of the individual thesis chapters, and a working bibliography. The thesis advisor circulates the thesis proposal among the committee members for their approval. The thesis committee is usually but not always identical to the student’s exam committee. The student writes the thesis while enrolled in thesis hours (ARH 599) for up to 6 hours. When the thesis is completed to the satisfaction of the thesis advisor it is distributed to the thesis committee for comments. The final step in the completion of the thesis is the oral defense. In the oral defense the student justifies the methodology and the conclusions of the thesis to the committee.

The student must complete all of the required revisions and corrections to the thesis to the satisfaction of the committee before submitting the finished thesis to the Graduate School. The final written thesis must conform to the requirements of the Graduate School for it to be accepted. The student must provide an electronic copy of the thesis for The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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