As a major in our Art History and Museum Studies program, the only of its kind housed in a museum, you will gain the academic and technical expertise required for looking at, handling, speaking, and writing about art, artifacts, and their vital role in human culture.
Every picture tells a story. Every object has a history. And at Florida Southern College, you'll learn to read both.
FSC's BA in Art History and Museum Studies is the only program of its kind in the country, housed inside a Smithsonian-affiliated museum, the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art, home to a permanent collection of more than 3,000 objects, including artworks by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Faith Ringgold, and Miriam Schapiro. Here, the museum isn't a field trip. It's your classroom, your laboratory, and your professional home base from day one.
Examining not simply the history of art but history through art, you'll develop the critical thinking, expressive writing, and visual analysis skills that open doors across a remarkable range of careers, from museums, galleries, and conservation to business, law, journalism, and beyond.
FSC's Art History and Museum Studies program offers an internship guarantee, connecting students with professional opportunities on campus and across the country. Past placements include:
Whether you're working steps from campus or in a New York gallery, every internship is a chance to build your portfolio, your professional network, and your confidence as a practitioner in the field.
There is no substitute for standing in front of the real thing. FSC's Junior Journey and faculty-led study abroad trips take Art History and Museum Studies students to the hubs of the art world:
Closer to home, visits to regional institutions including the Dalí Museum, the Tampa Museum of Art, and the Orlando Museum of Art bring students face-to-face with art from across time and the most recent conversations in contemporary culture.
Take your studies around the globe and across millennia. Delve into visual analysis, archaeology, anthropology, literary and art criticism, philosophy, the science of conservation, and the business of art — all while gaining hands-on experience inside one of Florida's premier museum environments.
Ready to explore the world through art? FSC's application process is straightforward — and there's scholarship funding available specifically for Art History and Museum Studies students.
All freshman applicants to Florida Southern Colleges full-time degree programs must submit the following information:
Applying to Florida Southern as a transfer student is easy. Submit:
If transferring fewer than 24 credits, also include your official high school transcript and SAT/ACT scores.
Learn More about transfer admissionsScholarship funding is available for incoming Art History and Museum Studies students. To be considered, submit one writing sample (minimum 500 words) in any of the following formats:
Submissions are assessed for originality, creativity, clarity of writing, and individual voice.
The BA in Art History and Museum Studies builds a comprehensive foundation in the historical interpretation and critical analysis of the visual arts: examining art, artifacts, and architecture produced across the entirety of human history. From ancient cave paintings to contemporary museum practice, you'll come to understand how art is inextricable from the time in which it was made.
Coursework spans visual analysis, archaeology, anthropology, literary and art criticism, philosophy, conservation science, and the business of art. Alongside traditional seminars, you'll work directly with art objects and museum professionals inside the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art, developing the visual discernment, writing proficiency, and verbal expression that are essential to art historical analysis.
Beginning with sophomore year, students must maintain a 2.4 GPA overall and earn a C or better in all coursework counting toward the degree.
Art History and Museum Studies is built for flexibility. The major's multidisciplinary nature allows you to pair it with coursework from across the college to match your specific career goals.
With FSC's Career Paths option, you can take courses in business, education, chemistry, communications, or any other discipline, tailoring your degree toward the career you want:
Core areas of study include:
Art History and Museum Studies students at FSC are part of a close-knit academic community with a rich extracurricular life. Join Kappa Pi, the international art honor society, or the AGB Ambassadors, and connect with peers who share your passion for visual culture and the museum world.
Art History and Museum Studies graduates bring their skills to a remarkable range of fields — from the museum world to law, medicine, business, and international relations.
The most direct path for many Art History and Museum Studies graduates — working with collections, designing exhibitions, and connecting communities to the art and artifacts that shape our shared history. FSC's internship guarantee and on-campus museum access give you a professional head start before graduation.
Conservators are the guardians of cultural heritage, using a unique combination of art historical knowledge and scientific technique to preserve works for future generations. FSC's Career Paths option lets you pair art history coursework with chemistry to build the foundation for this specialized and growing field.
Leading a museum, gallery, or arts organization requires both cultural fluency and business acumen. FSC's multidisciplinary curriculum prepares you to manage people, budgets, and programs in the institutions that keep art alive and accessible.
Whether in a museum education department, a school, or a community program, art educators connect audiences of all ages to the power of visual culture. FSC's program, rooted in the Barnett Museum and built on direct engagement with real works, prepares you to make that connection with confidence.
Art historians are critical thinkers, skilled writers, and sharp visual communicators—qualities that translate across industries. FSC graduates have successfully brought the skills developed in Art History and Museum Studies to the worlds of business, law, journalism, marketing, social media, and international relations.
"The Art History and Museum Studies Major at FSC is absolutely one of a kind. I am constantly impressed by how much attention is placed upon each student's individual success — every faculty member is there to support you both inside and out of the classroom."
"I can pursue a multiplicity of interests, be them art conservation-focused, docent and historian-based, or creatively imaginative. While the field itself hosts these copious options, the FSC program offers unique opportunities by way of direct work and internships with the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art, and even the first collegiate Art History and Museum Studies Journal! Everyone in this program brings beautifully varied perspectives on life."
"The faculty in both the Art History Department and the Barnett School of Business are fantastic. They are all easy to talk to and are there to help you at every step during your time here."
From the galleries of the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art to the streets of Paris, Florence, Berlin, and New York City, FSC Art History and Museum Studies students are always in the work. Every experience, every internship, every study abroad trip, every gallery installation, builds the expertise and professional network you'll rely on for the rest of your career.
"My approach in the classroom is built around curiosity and direct engagement with antiquity. I want students to think about art history and the past as something they can handle and interrogate. Studying how people made and understood images in the past, and how we interpret and encounter those same images today, empowers students to question how the past is presented to them and why that matters."
Get an inside look into the Florida Southern College experience with on-campus tours and events designed to show you what it will be like to live, study, and play at FSC.
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Meet FSC Mocs before a fun-filled experience at Southern Select! You can enjoy light refreshments...
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Much more than a traditional campus visit, Southern Select includes team building activities, a...
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Read the latest from FSC's Department of Art History and Museum Studies — from student internship placements and exhibition openings to faculty research and study abroad highlights.
Curious about the program, scholarship opportunities, or what a career in the museum world looks like? We'd love to connect.
Department Chair, Art History and Museum Studies, Associate Professor of Art History
The history of the world is waiting to be read through paintings, sculptures, artifacts, and the institutions that preserve them. Take your next step toward a degree in Art History and Museum Studies at Florida Southern College.
