Department of Art History and Art

Mather House
Phone: 216.368.4118 or 368.4039; Fax: 216.368.4681
Elina Gertsman, Acting Chair
elina.gertsman@case.edu


The Department of Art History and Art offers opportunities to study art history, to engage in pre-professional museum training, and to participate in a broad range of studio offerings. The Bachelor of Arts degree is granted in art history and in pre-architecture (second major only). The department offers graduate programs leading to the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy in art history, Master of Arts in art history, and Master of Arts in art history and museum studies. In conjunction with the School of Law, the department also offers a combined JD/Master of Arts in art history and museum studies. Qualified undergraduates majoring in art history may participate in the Integrated Graduate Studies Program.

All art programs are considerably enhanced by close cooperation with cultural institutions located in University Circle, in particular the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). The planned Nancy and Joseph Keithley Institute for Art History, to be created jointly with the Cleveland Museum of Art, will promote art historical studies through graduate fellowship support, collections-based graduate seminars, travel and research funding, undergraduate internship funding, and joint programming with the Cleveland Museum of Art.

In conjunction with the Department of Physics and other university associates, the department has launched a set of initiatives under the umbrella art.lab.cle to transform the fields of art history and art pedagogy, both through transdisciplinary collaboration with the sciences and technology and through the pursuit of social justice. At times, these two approaches mesh in a single project. The democratization of art is at the heart of our vision.

Art History Program

The study of art history expands visual literacy, deepens critical reading and writing skills, and increases students' abilities to think across fields. The discipline is profoundly multidisciplinary, and it enhances awareness of cultural diversity around the globe and throughout time. Students majoring in art history have a wide variety of career opportunities. Graduates with a strong background in art history are employed as college and university professors; as museum professionals (in curatorial, educational, and administrative positions); as art librarians and archivists; as development officers; as journalists; as art gallery or auction house staff members; as art conservators and restorers; as art specialists in the diplomatic service and at all levels of government; and in other careers in industry, film, and television. Some of these specialties require additional study and professional preparation beyond the bachelor’s degree. Other art history majors who have fulfilled the required prerequisites go on to attend law, medical, or business school. Increasingly, familiarity with global visual culture is desirable for those pursuing careers well outside the field (for example, engineering students).

The graduate programs in art history are offered as part of the exceptional joint program in art history of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Most classes, undergraduate and graduate level, are held in the museum, and some courses are offered or co-taught by museum curators who hold adjunct appointments in the department. Students taking advanced-level courses use the museum’s extensive research library, and all students have an opportunity to study original works of art in the museum’s superb collections and conservation laboratories. 

Art Studio Program

For students seeking to develop their formal, conceptual, and technical artistic skills, the Art Studio Program offers courses in a variety of art media: drawing, painting, design, textiles, photography, ceramics, new media art, and architecture. These courses can be taken as university electives or to fulfill requirements for minors in art studio or photography or for the major or minor in pre-architecture. The program offers pre-architecture as a second major and as a minor for students who expect to continue architectural studies at the graduate level.

Department Faculty

Elina Gertsman, PhD
(Boston University)
Distinguished University Professor; Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities; Director of Graduate Studies; Acting Chair
Medieval art

Elizabeth Bolman, PhD
(Bryn Mawr College)
Elsie B. Smith Chair in the Liberal Arts; Professor and Chair, Department of Art History and Art
Late Antique and Byzantine visual culture

Henry Adams, PhD
(Yale University)
Ruth Coulter Heede Professor in Art History
American art

Erin Benay, PhD
(Rutgers University)
Associate Professor; Distinguished Scholar in the Public Humanities
Early Modern Southern European art

Steven Ciampaglia, EdD
(Northern Illinois University)
Champney Family Professor of Art; Associate Professor; Director, Art Studio Program
Social justice and community arts; critical pedagogy; art + tech; media arts education

Benjamin O. Murphy, PhD
(Princeton University)
Assistant Professor
Latin American studies

Maggie L. Popkin, PhD
(The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University)
Professor
Ancient Roman art and archaeology

Andrea Wolk Rager, PhD
(Yale University)
Associate Professor; Director of Undergraduate Studies
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century British and European art


Adjunct Faculty from the Cleveland Museum of Art

Cory Korkow, PhD
(University of Virginia)
Adjunct Associate Professor; Associate Curator, European Art

Heather Lemonedes, PhD
(The Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York)
Adjunct Associate Professor; Deputy Director and Chief Curator

Gerhard Lutz, PhD
(Technical University Berlin)
Adjunct Professor; Robert P. Bergman Curator of Medieval Art

Sonya Rhie Mace, PhD
(Harvard University)
Adjunct Professor; George P. Bickford Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Sooa Im McCormick , PhD
(University of Kansas)
Adjunct Assistant Professor; Assistant Curator, Korean Art

Emily Peters, PhD
(University of California, Santa Barbara)
Adjunct Professor; Curator, Prints and Drawings

Barbara Tannenbaum, PhD
(University of Michigan)
Adjunct Professor; Curator, Photography


Adjunct Art History Faculty

Heather Galloway, Certificate in Conservation; MA in Art History
(Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art)
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Physical examination of works of art

Gary Sampson, PhD
(University of California, Santa Barbara)
Associate Dean, Graduate Studies, Cleveland Institute of Art
History of photography

Holly Witchey, PhD
(Case Western Reserve University)
Adjunct Professor
Museum studies


Art Studio

Steven Ciampaglia, EdD
(Northern Illinois University)
Champney Family Professor of Art; Associate Professor; Director, Art Studio Program
Social justice and community arts; critical pedagogy; art + tech; media arts education

Jerry Birchfield, MFA
(Cornell University)
Lecturer, Photography Advisor
Photography, creative photography

Jamal Collins, BFA
(University of Akron)
Part-time lecturer
Graphic design

David King, MFA
(Case Western Reserve University)
Lecturer
Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking

Adriel Meyer, MA
(Case Western Reserve University)
Lecturer
Fibers and textiles

George Kozmon, BFA
(Cleveland Institute of Art)
Lecturer
Design

Sally Levine, MA
(University of Illinois)
Lecturer
Architecture

Kerry Richardson, MFA
(School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
Full-time Lecturer
Video art

Martha Lois, MFA
(Kent State University)
Lecturer
Ceramics

Barney Taxel, BA
(Case Western Reserve University)
Lecturer
Digital photography


Emeriti

Ellen G. Landau
Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emerita of the Humanities

Edward J. Olszewski
Professor Emeritus

Catherine B. Scallen, PhD
Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emerita of the Humanities
Northern Renaissance and Baroque art and historiography