The Art History program at Drake University will push you to understand not only the visual nature of art but also its intellectual and philosophical aspects. You will examine the ways in which art reveals ideas about the physical world and the human mind, and you will engage the close bonds between works of art and the civilizations in which they were produced.

As you study the diversity artistic styles, you will be asked to engage many of the intriguing aspects of art as well as your own ideas about artistic practice. You will be encouraged to see art as more than an aesthetic enterprise, but as a form of inquiry, a way of thinking about what it means to communicate, to make, and to exist within a society.

The Art History Program at Drake is committed to an extensive study of both Western and Non-Western Art, and the remarkable relationships that form when diverse cultural artifacts are examined in relation to each other. Whether works are ancient or contemporary, the program seeks to push students to a greater understanding of the significance of visual production within Art History and within the broader cultural conditions in which it exists.