Art History, Curatorial Track (PhD)

Program Educational Goals:

Students will demonstrate knowledge of artistic traditions across a wide diversity of times and places, and also a high level of knowledge in one particular area of study, whether chronological, geographical, and/or thematic.
Students will demonstrate the ability to research and write about works of art clearly and with appropriate attention to such factors as style, iconography, condition, provenance, and reception. They will demonstrate the ability to present their writing with appropriate citations of evidence from both primary and secondary, visual and textual, sources, and to use one or more foreign languages as necessary for their scholarship.
Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate their knowledge concerning works of art in oral form, both to other art professionals and to more general audiences.
Students will demonstrate a thorough grasp of curatorial methodology, covering the wide range of practical and conceptual issues involved in developing an exhibition.
Students will demonstrate management and financial skills pertinent to leadership roles in museums and other fine arts institutions.
Students will demonstrate basic knowledge of the theory and methods of art conservation.
Students will demonstrate understanding of the structural inequalities that have shaped the history of museums and other fine arts institutions as well as strategies to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion within such institutions.

Program Overview:

The Curatorial Track PhD program (CTPhD) is intended to prepare graduate students in Art History for curatorial careers in specialized art historical fields. The program is open to students who have been accepted into the Department’s doctoral program. Its nature is twofold: 1) a scholarly component will provide students with a thorough and intensive specialized training in graduate-level art historical studies; 2) a practical, interdisciplinary component will involve coursework in such related fields as art conservation, technical art history, preservation studies; curatorial and museum studies; and business and non-profit management. This second component also comprises a minimum of two internships in art museums (ARTH 664 ), including our program’s partners: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Delaware Art Museum, and the Walters Art Museum, among others.

Requirements for the CTPhD:

Students with a BA

Students with a BA entering the Art History Direct PhD program and electing to take the Curatorial Track will follow all the rules and regulations (http://www.arthistory.udel.edu/graduate/rules) of the Art History Direct PhD except as follows:

The credit minimums and distribution for CTPhD students will be: 8 courses (24 credits) in Art History graduate courses, following the same breadth requirements, etc., as the regular Art History Direct PhD and 6 courses (18 credits) in CTPhD Program Courses (see below for specific distribution requirements);
The total minimum courses/credits for CT students in the Direct PhD Program will therefore be 14 courses (42 credits), plus 3 Master’s Paper credits (ARTH 870 ), plus 9 Dissertation credits (ARTH 969 ) = 54 credits.

Students with an MA

Students with an MA entering the CTPhD follow all the rules and regulations of the Art History PhD program, except as follows:

The credit minimums and distribution for CTPhD students will be: 6 courses (18 credits) in Art History graduate courses, following the same breadth requirements, etc., as the regular Art History PhD program and 6 courses (18 credits) in CTPhD Program Courses (see below for specific distribution requirements;
The total minimum courses/credits for CT students entering the program with an MA will therefore be 12 courses (36 credits), plus 9 Dissertation credits (ARTH 969 ) = 45 credits.

Area Requirements

A minimum of six graduate courses (18 credits), one in each of the following six areas:

Art Conservation, Technical Art History, Preservation Studies, Techniques and Materials - Courses that fulfill this requirement will focus on such topics as: Properties and Structure of Art Materials; Conservation Research Methods; Examination and Treatment of Art Objects.
Curatorial Studies, Museum Studies, Exhibition Courses - Courses that fulfill this requirement will focus on such topics as: Museum Curatorship; Conservation Research Methods; Examination and Treatment of Art Objects.
Business and Non-Profit Management, Organizations, Human Resources, Administration, Accounting, or a course in a similar area with advisor’s approval - Courses that fulfill this requirement will focus on such topics as: understanding people in organizations; or ethical issues in the business environment.
Elective - One course in any area (e.g.: Material Culture Studies, Art Conservation, Business and Non-Profit Management, Art History, etc.) with the approval of the advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies.
Internship A (ARTH 664 , max. six credits) - One semester of curatorial internship in area museums (a two-month or longer summer internship will be deemed to count as a semester).
Internship B ( ARTH 664 , max. six credits) - A second semester of curatorial internship, either in the same museum as the first or in a different one (a two-month or longer summer internship will be deemed to count as a semester).

Internships Colloquium:

Upon completion of the second semester of the CT Internship, the student will organize a colloquium for a scholarly audience on a topic approved by the student’s advisor in consultation with the museum curator who has sponsored and overssen the internship.

Doctoral Examination for the CTPhD:

Major Field Exam will include a connoisseurship component, which, when feasible, will include original objects.
The Minor Field exam is not required.

Relation To The MA In American Material Culture

At the University of Delaware, there are two avenues to the historical study of the visual arts: (1) The MA and PhD program in the Department of Art History; and (2) the MA in American Material Culture sponsored by the Winterthur Program, a multidisciplinary graduate course of study offered cooperatively by the University and the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum. Students interested primarily in studying American decorative arts in a material culture context should consider the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture described in this catalog. The Department of Art History is concerned with the fine arts (painting, sculpture, and architecture) and with the decorative arts in that context, with study of the decorative arts at the PhD level especially encouraged.

At the PhD level, the department offers specialization in the decorative arts through courses at Winterthur, and students may take their minor field examination and elect to write their dissertations in this area. These students have access to the collections and teaching staff at Winterthur. Master’s papers may also be written on the subject.