Graduate Studies in Art History
I'll be entering my senior year at a small, liberal arts women's college in September (I'm an art history/Italian double major). I'm beginning to get application materials together, have plans to take the GRE within the next month or so, etc., but I've realized that I have little guidance as to what programs I should apply to. My end goal is to do
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I'm in an art history M.A. program, getting ready to apply to Ph.D.s, and I was in your position for a while in terms of trying to plan a career, so I want to pass on some advice to you.
As someone else said, the best thing you can do is look up curators at museums that you might one day want to work and check out their qualifications, or email them and ask their advice. Most folks are friendly and would be happy to help, and are probably more qualified than I am to help you out.
That being said, what I've learned from my experience is that the market for curators in art museums is usually pretty crowded, and there are a lot more curators with Ph.D.s than there are curators with just M.A.s. I worked in one very small museum where the chief curator had an M.A. in art history and another one in arts administration, and I know one assistant curator at a major national museum who has an M.A. Pretty much all the other curators I know (10+) at both large and small museums have Ph.D.s and most consider it to be a requirement for the job.
I also don't personally know any curators who have their only M.A. in something other than art history. As I mentioned above, I've seen some people who have more than one M.A. in an additional, helpful field (museum studies, arts administration, etc.). But having an M.A. in art history seems pretty important.
When I first decided I wanted to work in museums, I did a lot of research. Initially I had planned to apply for M.A. programs in museum studies, but eventually I decided that I really needed to pursue a Ph.D. in art history instead to realize my career goals. Those goals have actually shifted... I'm more interesting in academia than museum work now, but luckily that Ph.D. will prepare me for both careers so I can make up my mind either way and have the right degree in hand.
Hope this helps!
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