Contexts, perspectives, politics, and trends connect across eras to reveal paths to today, and beyond: Art History is the lens through which we see the future.
Art history in Canada may have started at NSCAD, but we don’t dwell in the past. Our program is thought-provoking, wide-ranging, and fiercely attuned to the present. You’ll learn to push boundaries and apply critical theory to social issues, change-making, and your art practice.
An Art History degree is a frame through which you can examine any aspect of visual culture – fine arts, craft, design, moving images, performance, architecture – in tandem with feminist and queer theories, Indigenous methodologies, and curatorial practices. You’ll explore contemporary art and design as it relates to the everyday—in politics, pop culture, food, economics, and technology.
The Art History program is designed to be tailored to your interests and skill sets while connecting you to the whole university community and the city’s art scene, which is why it combines so well with studio-based studies.
FOUNDATION PROGRAM: You will start your NSCAD degree with an immersive Foundation studies program. This first year introduces you to all the disciplines and practices we teach at NSCAD, and it will equip you with the critical and creative skills you need to thrive in art and design school.
The studio-based Art History degree offers you the chance to consider your work in the context of what you learn in a classroom setting, applying theory and history with your own hands to your artistic practices.
This degree hones your analytical skills, gives you an understanding of curation and criticism, and will inform your conceptual and technical skills, especially as they apply to your practicing artist (or, more likely, both).
You will have nearly unlimited access to their own studio space on campus, allowing you to chase their inspiration or crank out an assignment at any hour.
An Art History (Studio) degree establishes an incredible base for today’s cultural industries, equipping graduates with the analytical skills to take them in nearly any direction: artist, curator, writer, arts administrator, critic, teacher, media production, business, law, and more.
