<p>Tried searching for rankings, but there appears to be very little information about programs/degrees in Art History, seeing that it is such a small field.</p>
<p>Automatically, I would think of places in NYC--with a million art galleries to explore--as the prime destination, so maybe Columbia or NYU? Any other suggestions for colleges/universities with strong Art History departments?</p>
<p>ken, Williams College has one of the best art history programs in the country. Many of the directors and curators of top museums are Williams graduates, so much so that they are called the Williams mafia. There are three museums on or near campus and all offer hands-on curating experience. Summer museum internships and study abroad opportunities are also part of Williams program.</p>
<p>Other small liberal arts colleges with good art history are Wesleyan, Skidmore, Bard, Oberlin, Hamilton. All of the ivy league with the exception of Dartmouth -- Yale and Brown especially. Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, NYU. Some of the big state U's like Cal and Michigan.</p>
<p>I agree that New York is a great place to study art, but then again so is Williamstown, so choose the location that best suits your preference.</p>
<p>The way you get hired in this field is to study with faculty/departments that trained the present curators. That pretty well means Williams and some Ivies. Having a strong art history program per se is not as important as being able to do independent study with a faculty person who is a key figure in the field of art you wish to study. That moves a place with very strong independent study like Princeton way up over what you would otherwise glean from the catalog.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The way you get hired in this field is to study with faculty/departments that trained the present curators. That pretty well means Williams and some Ivies.
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...and NYU, which has a better placement record than most of the above. :)</p>
<p>momrath gave excellent suggestions. Here's an article about the "Williams mafia":
LEGACY</a>; One College's Long Shadow: Looking Back at the 'Williams Mafia' - New York Times</p>
<p>I would give strong consideration to your sub-field, if you have at least a vague idea of what specialty most interests you. While large departments like Berkeley and Columbia's are strong across the board, smaller programs do not adequately cover all fields of art history. </p>
<p>You might also check to see if there is a conservation lab or program on campus. You'll need several hundred hours of conservation experience if you decide to go into art conservation, so it's always best to start racking up this experience as soon as possible. This gives you valuable experience even if you decide not to go that route.</p>
<p>collegehelp posted a list of strong art history schools:
Art</a> History</p>
<p>Northwestern's Art History department is one of the strongest at the school and one of the nation's top ten departments. This despite its unusually small size within a university of almost 8,000 undergraduates. Historically this has translated into small classes, great attention from professors, and great university resourses outside the department.<br>
Department</a> of Art History, WCAS, Northwestern University</p>
<p>Northwestern's Block Museum of Art on campus offers opportunities for on campus practicums.
Block</a> Museum, Northwestern University</p>
<p>The Art Institute of Chicago is only an El ride away with all that one of the great museums of the world can offer. Endless other research and internship opportunities are obviously also available among Chicago's more specialized museums and in galleries throughout the country's third largest city.</p>
<p>for LAC's Williams and Oberlin are good choices - strong faculty, good art museums, access to other good museums (Williams is near the Clark; Oberlin is near Cleveland art museum, both schools have fine small museums); for universities, UC Berkeley, Columbia, NYU, Princeton are particularly strong, but there are many others. If you want to go to graduate school in art history, any of these schools would work for you. Brandeis would not be a good choice, at least for access to a college museum...</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr College</p>
<p>I second Johns Hopkins. The Art history program at Hopkins was ranked #1 by Chronicle Higher education in faculty scholarly index and has also been ranked top 10 in 1995 NRC rankings. Faculties at Hopkins typically have joint appointments at the Baltimore Musuem of Art (immediately adjacent to the Homewood campus of JHU), and Walters Art Musuem (immediately adjacent to the Mt. Vernon Peabody campus of JHU). </p>
<p>Trust me, I've taken art history classes before at Harvard and Harvard has top notch art musuems like Arthur Sackler (great for Asian art), Fogg (closed for renovations for like 5 yrs), and Busch Reigner musuems.... Hopkins art history nicely rivals that of Harvard and I enjoyed my experience in art history classes at both institutions... Professors at both universities were top notch :D</p>