Student Opportunities

Study Abroad (Spring Break, Summer Session, Semester, or Year)

Consider a location related to potential fields of study. https://www.odu.edu/studyabroad

Foreign Languages

• Tremendous asset no matter your career path.
• Recommended languages are German, French, Italian, Spanish or others for specialized fields.

Scholarships / Grants / Research

• Charles K. Sibley Art History Scholarship (Spring Semester, Annual)
• The Helen and Richard Parker Scholarship Endowment in Art History (Spring Semester, Annual)
• Scholarships via Honors College (Begins Sophomore Year) https://www.odu.edu/honors/scholarship
• Undergraduate Research & Creativity Grant Scholarship (Fall, Spring, Summer) Semesters) https://www.odu.edu/honors/research/funding.
• Undergraduate Research Symposium (Spring, Annual) Excellent opportunity to present research, build C.V.

https://www.odu.edu/honors/research/symposium

• Further opportunity to publish paper online via the Old Dominion University Undergraduate Research Journal (OUR Journal) https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/ourj/.

Undergraduate Art History Courses

Take courses from as many different faculty as possible, both to broaden your knowledge and to help secure future letters of support.

Capstone or Senior Thesis

Begin to think about this in your junior year. Students may choose between a capstone or senior thesis for their final culminating work before graduation. Both capstone and senior thesis require a research paper with an original thesis or original contribution to existing scholarship supported by advanced research (capstone = 10 pages; senior thesis = 20-25 pages).

Internships (Fall, Summer, Spring)

Museum internships provide opportunities for high impact experiential learning for art history majors, regardless of their professional goals. Students can not only apply their knowledge of art practice and the history of art to their museum internship, but they will also gain valuable skills, both practical and research oriented, that will help them achieve job placement and admission to graduate programs in art history and museum studies.

Possible locations nearby include: The Barry Art Museum (ODU campus); The Chrysler Museum of Art; The Hermitage Museum & Gardens, and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), among others.

Career Paths After ODU

Academia

Typically involves earning an M.A. and a Ph.D. over 6-10 years. To be competitive for admission: Strong GRE scores, strong writing sample, strong letters of recommendation, focused course of study.

Museums / Galleries / Libraries

Many different opportunities, from Curator, Conservationist, Educator, Librarian, etc. Often involves a graduate degree depending on chosen field (M.A., M.L.S., Ed.M., MBA, etc.).

American Alliance of Museums https://www.aam-us.org/
Society of American Archivists https://www2.archivists.org/assoc-orgs/a_p_o

Visual Resources

See the Visual Resources Association at http://www.vraweb.org/.

Arts Administration

Management careers in the "creative sector."

Association of Arts Administrative Educators (AAAE)

http://www.artsadministration.org/grad

Auction Houses

Opportunities in connoisseurship, marketing, and other aspects of the field (certificate or M.A.).

https://www.christies.com/en

http://www.sothebysinstitute.com/

Governmental Art Organizations

From the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Park Services, Museums, and a host of organizations and societies. The FBI has an Art Crime Team. Browse opportunities at: http://www.usajobs.gov.

Academic Publishing

Working for a scholarly / university press as an editor, etc., would be an excellent experience, giving you many transferable skills.

Professional Art Associations

Possibilities include everything from clerical to administrative work. May also be a good pathway to other careers in the arts.

College Art Association http://www.collegeart.org/

Southeastern College Art Conference http://www.secacart.org/

Archaeological Institute of America https://www.archaeological.org/

The Classical Association of the Middle West and South https://camws.org/

International Center of Medieval Art http://www.medievalart.org.

Renaissance Society of America http://www.rsa.org.

Sixteenth Century Society Conference http://www.sixteenthcentury.org/

Society of Architectural Historians http://www.sah.org/

Association of Historians of American Art http://www.ahaaonline.org.

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art http://www.ahnca.org.