Graduate Program
UWM Graduate School
Graduate School Bulletin: General Information
Graduate School Bulletin: Art History Program
Admissions
Financial Support
Tuition and Fees
Master's Options
Graduate Comprehensive Examination Guidelines
Master of Arts
The Department of Art History of the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee offers a graduate program leading to the Master of Arts degree in Art History. The program is designed to provide students with a solid academic foundation on which to base a variety of careers in the arts, or to prepare them for Ph.D. level work at other universities. An optional course of study leading to the M.A. in Art History with a Certificate in Museum Studies is intended for students who wish to pursue curatorial careers.
Course offerings cover the full range of western art, from ancient to contemporary, including film studies and electronic arts. Courses in Pre-Columbian, Asian, Islamic and African art are also offered. Students may design their programs from a wide selection of lectures, colloquia, and seminars, as well as independent study.
Internships in Milwaukee area museums may be taken for course credit and are required for students pursuing the Certificate in Art Museum Studies. In the past, graduate students have held internships at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Pabst Mansion, and a variety of local galleries.
All students will develop breadth by taking courses in at least four different areas of art history, and all must demonstrate a reading knowledge of one appropriate art-historical language other than English by the time they have completed nine credits of course work. To qualify for graduation, students will produce either a thesis on a scholarly problem, a thesis exhibition with scholarly catalogue, or a written comprehensive examination. Incoming students are required to take a methodology course in their first semester.
The program also hosts an annual graduate symposium during the spring semester.
Certificate in Art Museum Studies
The Certificate in Art Museum Studies is designed as an addition to the M.A. in Art History for students interested in pursuing careers in the museum world. This program of study offers a variety of opportunities for practical training including internships. Certificate students will also be expected to organize an exhibition to fulfill their thesis requirements. Thesis exhibitions are held in a large gallery space overseen by the Art History Department. Recent student exhibitions have featured 20th-century painting, World War II posters, and architectural drawings. Further hands-on experience is provided by Art History 703 and 704, Introduction to Art Museum Studies, required courses for the certificate. At the culmination of this sequence of courses is the student-curated exhibition Back to the Top
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Modern Painting and Sculpture |
Kenneth Bendiner | Professor and Chair | Ph.D. Columbia University |
| Classical Art and Archaeology |
Derek Counts | Associate Professor | Ph.D. Brown University |
| History, Theory and Criticism of Film |
Elena Gorfinkel | Assistant Professor | Ph.D. New York University |
| American Art, Folk Art | Jeffrey Hayes | Professor | Ph.D. University of Maryland |
| Architecture |
Nancy Hubbard | Associate Professor | Ph.D. Northwestern University |
| Contemporary Art |
Jennifer Johung | Associate Professor | Ph.D. UC-Berkeley |
| Medieval Art and Architecture |
Richard Leson | Assistant Professor | Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University |
| Pre-Columbian, African and Oceanic Art |
Andrea J. Stone | Professor | Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin |
| Renaissance and Baroque Art | Tanya Tiffany | Associate Professor | Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University |
| Asian Art and Bronze Age China |
Ying Wang | Associate Professor | Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh |
| Emeriti Faculty | |||
| History, Theory and Criticism of Film, Television and Video |
Patricia Mellencamp | Professor Emerita | M.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Ancient Art and Archaeology |
Jane C. Waldbaum | Professor Emerita | Ph.D. Harvard University |
| Paul E. Sprague | Professor Emeritus | Ph.D. Princeton University |
Facilities
The Department has ample space for all aspects of the program, including a study area and office for Teaching Assistants. Gallery space in Mitchell Hall is available for temporary exhibitions, including shows organized by graduate students in conjunction with courses, seminars or theses. The Art History faculty also cares for a substantial university permanent collection, with special strengths in modern European and American painting, sculpture, and prints, Greek and Russian icons, and eighteenth-century British prints. The Department works with other related institutions including the University's Center for Twentieth-First Century Studies and the Newberry Library in Chicago. The Art History collections in the Golda Meir Library are constantly growing and are supplemented by major research collections in Madison and Chicago. Use of the full resources of the Milwaukee Art Museum, including its Prairie Archives and Hall Collection of folk art, are also available to students, as are the substantial holdings in ancient and non-Western art at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
Financial Aid
The University offers a number of fellowships and scholarships, which are open to graduate students in Art History. Also, the Chancellor's Award is offered annually to the most promising incoming students.
Financial Aid Information
Admission/Information
Requirements include undergraduate degree with minimum 2.75 GPA, record of GRE scores, and two letters of recommendation. For further information write to the Graduate Advisor, Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201; call 414-229-4330; fax 414-229-2935; or e-mail Derek Counts at dbc@uwm.edu
Guide to the UWM Department of Art History M.A. Application Process
Application
Forms for admission and graduate school fellowships can be obtained on the UWM Graduate School web site, or by writing to:
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, The Graduate School, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201. Phone: (414) 229-4982
