Art History Program

In addition to providing students with a broad understanding of world art, the Art History program focuses upon African American art and the art of the African Diaspora. In beginning and advanced courses and seminars, attention is given to the scholarship of pioneer African American interpreters of art such as Alain Locke, James A. Porter, Benjamin Brawley, and more recent Howard scholars Jeff R. Donaldson and Tritobia Hayes Benjamin. Howard’s legacy of art historical scholarship is continued in the work of distinguished alumni David C. Driskell, Richard J. Powell, Michael D. Harris and Lisa Farrington, among others. Samella S. Lewis, Sharon Patton, Lowery Stokes Simms, James Smalls, and Lisa Gail Collins are among other scholars whose publications inform and shape the contours of instruction and scholarship within the Department of Art.

The program has a strong research focus, providing a virtual road map for students who wish to pursue careers as art historians in academia or in museums as curators and educators.

All of our faculty are highly experienced professors in the field of art history and in the museum world. Hence they bring to their teaching, research, professional activities and service a breadth and depth of understanding of art that is comparable to what is seen at other Research I Universities across the United States.