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Welcome to the History of Art & Architecture

We study the art, architecture, and visual culture of the global past and present to understand our world today and create better futures. We adopt a capacious definition of art that explores all human creativity, regardless of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, or ability. Our mission is to expand our field which has entrenched an elitist and exclusionary worldview.

Highlights
Aerial view of the Frick Fine Arts building
Frick Fine Arts Library

The Frick Fine Arts Library has an outstanding research collection containing over 90,000 volumes.

People milling around an art gallery room
University Art Gallery

The University Art Gallery (UAG) is an open, flexible, and immersive laboratory for studying and displaying how art and visual objects generate knowledge and understanding of the world.

Student looks closely at a piece of artwork in a gallery
Constellations

The Constellations at the University of Pittsburgh are hubs of innovative practice that unite faculty and students across subfields in the Department of History of Art and Architecture.

A professor explains a piece of art to the class
Collecting Knowledge Pittsburgh

Collecting Knowledge Pittsburgh fosters opportunities for collaboration between Pitt faculty, students, and the local cultural sector.

Students watch a projected art display
Visual Media Workshop

The Visual Media Workshop is a humanities lab focused on the investigation of material and visual culture.

Students interacting with an architecture scale model
Prospective Students

Discover what makes the Department of History of Art & Architecture a standout program.

News

Bai and McCoy present on transcultural exchange in Eastern Eurasian religious art at MARAAS

HAA graduate student Mengtian Bai (presenter) and faculty member Micki McCoy (discussant) jointly participated in the panel, "Negotiating Foreignness: Rethinking Religious Art within and beyond East Asia, 12th-17th Centuries," at the Mid

Portrait of Erin Perry

Students Explore African and Diasporic Dance with Legacy Arts Project’s Erin Perry

On October 16, Erin Perry, executive director of the Legacy Arts Project, led a dynamic workshop for students students enrolled in the course Arts of Africa.

cover of Echo Delay Reverb

Copeland Contributes Interview to Echo Delay Reverb Exhibition Catalog

An interview with Professor Huey Copeland was published on October 17, 2025 in the catalog for the exhibition Echo Delay Reverb: American Art, French Thought, on view through February 2026 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.