Through on-campus and in-museum opportunities, the department offers several avenues (and venues) for degrees and certification at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The department offers numerous fellowships for both undergraduate and graduate students to work in museums. See the Prizes and Awards page for more information.
Museum Practice Focus
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Students in the Rice Art History PhD program benefit from longstanding ties between the department and major museums in the area. The Museum Practice Certificate puts students in direct, continuous contact with important curators, conservators, registrars, designers, and other museum professionals. A core museum studies course, led by a Rice faculty member and taught through weekly classes with the heads of departments at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, establishes a framework for those interested in a future in the museum world. Graduate seminars taught by curators in Houston area museums foster museum-based scholarship, and year-long fellowships at the MFAH, Menil, and elsewhere provide a platform for advanced research on site.
PhD Track for Houston Curators
The department offers a Museum Professionals track, which is designed for students who currently hold professional appointments at local museums. All the requirements for language proficiency, Graduate Research Paper, Oral and Written Qualifying exams and Dissertation Prospectus and Doctoral Dissertation are the same as those for all other Ph.D. students. However, graduate students who continue to hold their position at museums have a longer timetable of seven years. For more information, see the Graduate page.
Moody Center for the Arts
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The interdisciplinary center provides space for arts education, performances, and gallery exhibitions on campus and promote collaborations with Houston's world-class art musuems as well as internationally renowned visiting artists. Its mission is to encourage creative thinking and original expression, enrich curricular inovation, and promote cross-campus and community collaboration through transformative encounters with the arts. The Department of Art History has close ties to the Moody Center for the Arts, which allows undergraduate and graduate collaboration on a large scale. For more information about the space and current programs, visit The Moody Center for the Arts.