Art history departments scored on faculty depth, collection and museum access, language training, and graduate placement.
17programs in this category
17institutions
17states represented
6with a documented online option
Reviewed by David ChenExecutive Director and Art History Lead, ArtDegree.org · Last reviewed August 2026
AI Summary
Best Art History Programs: 17 matching program records at 17 institutions across
17 states, each linked to its official program page. 6 document an online
option, 10 are at public institutions, and 1 hold specialised arts accreditation such
as NASM, NASAD, NAST, ACF, or ACCSC. Credential levels represented:
Bachelor degree (14), Master degree (2), Doctoral degree (1).
Curriculum breadth at fifteen percent is the most informative factor here, because a department with faculty covering only two periods cannot supervise work in a third. Industry access captures museum proximity, which is where art history students get the practical experience that distinguishes graduate applications. In our Creative Arts Career Outcomes Survey 2026, the Art and Art History subsample of
268 graduates reported 81 percent employment within six months and a median
bachelor level starting salary of $52,000.
Reviewed by David Chen, Executive Director and Art History Lead, ArtDegree.org. Last updated August 2026.
Our take on this category
Art history is one of the best undergraduate educations available and one of the worst standalone job plans. The discipline teaches visual analysis, research, and argument at a level most degrees never approach. Pair it with museum studies, arts administration, education, or law and it works. Pair it with nothing and you will be applying for the same three unpaid internships as everyone else.
What is in this ranking?
Art history is a research discipline, and the programs that serve students best are the ones with faculty depth in your period, serious collection access, and language training that starts early.
These are the art history programs in our database, scored on documented curriculum breadth, institutional resources, and accreditation.
Art history is a research discipline, and the inputs that matter are unglamorous: how many faculty cover your period, whether there is a serious collection or partner museum within reach, whether the department trains you in languages, and where its graduates land.
Every card below links to the institution's own program page, which is the authority on curriculum, cost, and
accreditation. Our record is a pointer to it, not a replacement for it.
Massachusetts (1), New York (1), California (1), Rhode Island (1), Pennsylvania (1), Texas (1)
Specialised arts accreditation recorded
1 of 17 programs
Institutional control
10 public, 7 private
Online option documented
6 of 17 programs
What matters in an art history department?
Curriculum breadth at fifteen percent is the most informative factor here, because a department with faculty covering only two periods cannot supervise work in a third. Industry access captures museum proximity, which is where art history students get the practical experience that distinguishes graduate applications.
Portfolio output translates in this discipline into research output: writing samples, conference papers, and undergraduate theses. Programs that require substantial independent research produce stronger graduate applicants.
The full seven factor arithmetic lives on the methodology page rather than being reprinted here. Scores cluster: a three point gap is usually one documentation decision
rather than a difference in the education itself.
Best Art History Programs: the ranked list
17 institutions in the ranked cards, ordered by
Quality Index score.
One record per institution, so a single school cannot occupy the whole list.
Master degree · Online option documented
Master of Arts in Art History, online Art history
Savannah College of Art and Design · Savannah, Georgia
Credential
Master degree
Delivery
Online option documented
Accreditation
NASAD member institution
Institution type
Private nonprofit
Location
Savannah, Georgia
Subject areas
Art and design, Art history
Index detail: faculty 100, portfolio output 70, curriculum
90, accreditation 94, industry access
92, outcomes evidence 64, cost value 70.
Specialised accreditation recorded.
Faculty coverage by period. Whether at least two faculty work in the area you want to study.
Collection and museum access. A university museum, a partner institution, or a major collection within reach.
Language instruction. Whether German, French, Italian, or your field's languages are available and encouraged early.
Graduate placement record. Where the department's undergraduates go for doctoral study, by institution.
From our Creative Arts Career Outcomes Survey 2026
1,247 creative arts graduates from the graduating classes of 2020 through 2025, fielded January to March 2026.
83 percent reported employment or creative placement within six
months. 74 percent called hands on experience critical or very important.
Median self reported first position salaries: $45,000 certificate, $50,000 associate, $58,000 bachelor,
$68,000 master, $75,000 doctorate or MFA. Respondents opted in, so the employment figure is a ceiling.
For this category specifically, the Art and Art History subsample of 268 graduates reported 81 percent employment within six months.
Art posts the lowest bachelor level starting salary of the five fields at $52,000, which is the clearest argument on this site for controlling the cost of a fine arts degree.
Career path, Art and Art History respondents
Share
Art education
24 percent
Fine arts practice
20 percent
Graphic design and digital art
18 percent
Art history and museum studies
14 percent
Illustration and commercial art
12 percent
Arts administration
8 percent
Median first position salary, Art and Art History
Figure
Certificate
$38,000
Associate, AAS
$44,000
Bachelor, BA or BFA
$52,000
Master, MA or MFA
$62,000
Doctorate, PhD
$72,000
Source: Creative Arts Career Outcomes Survey 2026, ArtDegree.org, 1,247 creative arts graduates surveyed
January to March 2026, margin of error ±3.2 percent at 95 percent confidence. Respondents opted in, so
employment figures are a ceiling. Full limitations are published on the
research page.
What are the limits of this ranking?
Faculty leave, retire, and move, which changes period coverage from year to year.
Graduate placement records are published inconsistently and are frequently selective.
Museum access varies by relationship rather than by proximity, and relationships are not documented.
Doctoral admissions are national and highly competitive regardless of undergraduate institution.
What this means for you
Start languages in your first year, get museum experience by your second, and build a relationship with two faculty who can write specifically about your research. Those three moves decide graduate admissions far more than institutional prestige does.
And pair the degree with something practical: museum studies, arts administration, education, development, or law. Art history is an excellent education and a poor standalone job plan.
What can I do with an art history degree besides museums?
Auction houses, galleries, arts publishing, cultural nonprofits, art law, provenance and appraisal research, conservation support, arts education, and any role that rewards research and writing. Museum curation specifically is a doctoral track with brutal competition, and honest programs say so early.
Do I need languages?
For graduate work, yes, and it is not negotiable. German, French, and Italian remain standard depending on field, with others required by specialisation. Start in your first undergraduate year. Students who postpone languages lose a year of graduate school to catching up.
Is an online art history degree taken seriously?
For undergraduate study and for museum adjacent work, yes, if the institution is regionally accredited. The compromise is object access. Art history is trained on real objects at real scale, so if you study online, engineer your own museum time deliberately and repeatedly.
Reviewed by David ChenExecutive Director and Art History Lead, ArtDegree.org · Last reviewed August 2026
Verify before you decide: accreditation status, tuition, curriculum, and program structure
change, sometimes mid year. Every card above links to the institution's own page, which is the authoritative
source. Our database covers 456 program records at 278 institutions and is not
exhaustive. The Creative Arts Program Quality Index 2026 evaluated 212 programs, and score components are
published on each card so you can see how a figure was reached.
