I am going to start my freshman year of college in the fall, so of course I have been worrying like crazy about what I should major in. Based on the title of the article I was wondering if I need a Business degree or Art/Art History degree to get a job as an art consultant or an art appraiser. From what I’ve seen most art consultants commonly need sales experience, so of course a Business degree would come in handy. But also from my research, I have noticed that an art consultant also needs to be able to understand the value of art - similar to the job of an appraiser, which of course would require something like an Art History degree. Take into context that you cannot double major at my school if one of the majors is a Business degree. At my university Business degrees have almost no free space for electives if you want to graduate in 4 years.
I didn’t really know where to post this discussion - sorry if it is in the wrong spot!
You would need expertise in art history, probably a grad degree. If your school doesn’t offer art history for undergrad, you could probably satisfy yourself with a BA History, while concentrating on the “art” portion through ECs and research/scholarship. Then you could pursue a master’s degree in the more specialized field of art history, but to do that, you’d need to prove that you have the minimum necessary background and interest in art history, and that’s where your ECs and research and prof recommendations in undergrad would be critical.
Of course, for general employment, a business degree is much more practical than art history. If you could major in something like marketing, then add, at the minimum, an art history minor, I suppose you could transition later on into a career in art history/consulting. You would ultimately need more expertise in art history, academically, so you would then move into a grad program.
If your business degree doesn’t have room for an art history minor or electives, then just having a straight business degree isn’t going to do much to make you an expert in art history out of undergrad, or get you into a grad program in art history. In that case, an art history major (or history major with lots of arts supplemental work) would be a better route.
But as noted, you have to understand your career goals because a BBA might be the safer route overall. On the other hand, fields like history/art history are good preparation for careers in law/government too.