Student Opportunities

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

Consider a location related to potential fields of study.

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

• 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/

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).

(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.

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.

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
• Society of American Archivists

See the Visual Resources Association.

Management careers in the "creative sector."

Association of Arts Administrative Educators (AAAE) - http://www.artsadministration.org/grad

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

• https://www.christies.com/en
• http://www.sothebysinstitute.com/

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.

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

• College Art Association
• Southeastern College Art Conference
• Archaeological Institute of America
• The Classical Association of the Middle West and South
• International Center of Medieval Art
• Renaissance Society of America
• Sixteenth Century Society Conference
• Society of Architectural Historians
• Association of Historians of American Art
• Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art