Black lives matter. There is no place for neutrality here: we condemn the police brutality inflicted upon countless members of the Black community, and we condemn the racist policies and institutions that have enabled it. We acknowledge that our disciplines of art and architectural history and museum studies carry painful legacies of racist inequity and injustice in the works, monuments, and sites we study; the institutions we forge and inhabit; and the knowledge we convey. Unacknowledged or uncritiqued, these legacies harm us all. We commit to addressing the racism, past and present, within our disciplines and institutions, to center Black voices, and to promote Black leadership. The time for change is now.
See also the statement by Sylvia Rhor, Director of the University Art Gallery
Art history is a dynamic field that explores the history of creativity in objects, sites, and spaces across the globe. Cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural in its methods, art history asks big questions about how humans visualize and inhabit the world. Our faculty comprise internationally renowned scholars and innovative teachers. Our students at all levels pursue a wide range of educational paths and careers, including museum work, arts and cultural management, and university teaching and research. Our building houses an exceptional art library, a collaborative digital media workshop, and the university’s art gallery.