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You can explore the dynamic contexts and motivations for the creation of art and its significance to human cultures across time while earning a degree in art history at Wright State. You will benefit from this interdisciplinary program’s examination of our visual past, studying the nature of human creativity and culture through contexts provided by the sister disciplines of music, theater, and dance. Your courses will often link social and written history, archaeology, critical theory, gender studies, philosophy, and even science and mathematics. You can pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree or add a minor to your existing major.
You can prepare for a wide range of careers, both within and beyond the arts, at Wright State. Develop research skills, critical analysis, and effective written and oral communication. Then find employment at galleries, museums, auction houses, archives, and cultural institutions. You might also work in visual resource management, historic preservation, appraisal, cultural tourism, and publishing. You might also prepare for graduate study in other fields, including education, law, or business.
You can apply and refine the skills you’ve acquired in real-world situations with area arts organizations though internships. Expand your sense of how and where an education in the visual arts can be applied. Organizations that have offered internships in the past to students like you include, among others, the Dayton Art Institute, Dayton Visual Arts Center, and K-12 Gallery.
View the Bachelor of Arts in Art History program information, degree requirements, and graduation planning strategy in the Academic Catalog.
Review the admission requirements and complete the admission application. Identify whether you will be majoring in art history.
If you are a current student and wish to change majors, go to the WINGS Express major/minor change request form and change your major. If you are an undecided/exploratory student, talk to your advisor about majoring in art history.
Scholarships are based on both financial need and talent. They will be awarded based on a review of portfolios as well as an assessment of your high school transcripts, references, and financial need.
Scholarships are given for the first two years at Wright State, up to $3,000 per year. After the initial two-year period, you will be eligible for the art department’s talent scholarships for continuing students.
Download and complete the Incoming scholarship application. You will need to provide two references with contact information who can speak to your artistic accomplishments and a high school transcript. Submit a portfolio, either digitally or in person to the art department, consisting of a maximum of 20 works. No more than 10 pieces should be in any one medium.
Submitting the application and portfolio electronically:
Submitting the application and portfolio to the art department:
ArtsGala Scholarship Application for Incoming Students (PDF)
Electronic Submission Guidelines (PDF)
Any questions? Call Tracy Longley-Cook, Art Professor, at 937-775-3547.
The School of Fine and Performing Arts will award a limited number of Special Talent Scholarships to both full-time and part-time continuing studio majors and art history majors who will be enrolled during the Fall and Spring semesters of 2024–2025. If you are a B.F.A. or B.A. candidate who has a minimum of 12 hours within the department, you are eligible to apply. Your total number of hours includes those courses for which you are enrolled for Spring Semester.
You are strongly encouraged to fill out a FASFA each year, even if you believe you don’t qualify for financial aid. It may open avenues to other scholarship opportunities but does not disqualify you if you don’t apply.
Studio majors and art history majors may receive a total of five special talent scholarship awards during their matriculation toward a degree, To be eligible to re-apply for a scholarship, B.F.A. and B.A. candidates must complete a minimum number of credits in the department during the ensuing year(s). Following the spring semester of your special talent award, scholarship recipients must earn a minimum of 12 credit hours in studio art in the Department of Art and Art History, including credit hours for courses in progress (Spring Semester) at the time of your next portfolio review application.
For studio art majors, portfolios may include a maximum of 20 works, with no more than 10 in any of the following media: drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and photography. Slides or digital images may represent sculptures. Only work done since the last scholarship portfolio review is eligible. Only work done while at Wright State is eligible.
Art history majors may submit 2 art history papers with comments and grades in person to the SoFPA office, or email to art_arthistory@wright.edu along with a completed art history scholarship application.
Register and pick up a scholarship application and directions in the School of Fine and Performing Arts office (088 Creative Arts Center) from February 3–March 10, 2025. Portfolio drop-off and jurying will take place on Friday, March 14. You can pick up your portfolio by 2 p.m. that afternoon.
Finding the right college means finding the right fit. See all that the College of Liberal Arts has to offer by visiting campus.
