October 7, 2002

The Board of Trustees has approved a new master of arts degree program in art history.

The program, which will be the only such program in Connecticut, will teach materials and ideas too sophisticated to be developed at the undergraduate level, Chancellor John D. Petersen told the board last week.

"The program will provide a solid preparation for further graduate studies, as well as careers in academic, cultural, and social service institutions or in media, publishing, and administration," he said.

The program will be the only master's degree program in art history in the state, although Yale University has a Ph.D. program. Petersen said a few universities in New England offer a master's degree in art history. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, for example, has a program, but it focuses on area studies. According to the chancellor, the UConn program will concentrate on critical theory and methodology.

The program will build on existing resources, including the areas of specialization of current art history faculty, which include Medieval, Renaissance, 19th- and 20th-century European and American, African, Pacific Island, Asian American, Latin American, and Caribbean art.

In addition, the program will run a graduate course each year in museum studies, in partnership with the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.

The faculty also plan to develop courses and internships in concert with the Benton Museum in Storrs, the Center for Visual Arts and Culture in Storrs and Stamford, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Atheneum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, to offer a comprehensive range of interdisciplinary museum studies.