Iowa Idea Track Overview

Get a head start on your museum career with the Art, Museums, and Museology track to the art history major!

The track requires 27 semester hours of coursework in art history, 9 semester hours of coursework in Museum Studies, and 3 semester hours of hands-on training through an internship. 

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Course requirements

Required coursework for the Art, Museums, and Museology Track to the art history major can be found in the University of Iowa General Catalog.

The Bachelor of Arts in Art History requires a minimum of 120 semester hours, including 39 semester hours of work for the major. Students must maintain a grade-point average (GPA) of at least 2.00 in all courses for the major and in all UI courses for the major. They also must complete the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences GE CLAS Core.

Note that the requirements can and do change as deemed necessary by the School. However, once you have begun your program, your requirements will not change. Always refer to your degree audit as the official record of your requirements.

View General Catalog

Internship

Starting in Fall 2027, the Art, Museums, and Museology track requires 3 s.h. of experiential learning, and at least one of these 3 s.h. must be an Academic Internship (CCP:1201).* 

1 s.h. of Academic Internship is equal to 75 hours of on-the-job practical experience, 2 s.h. is equal to 150 hours, and 3 s.h. is equal to 225 hours.  We encourage you to take 3 s.h. of the Academic Internship if you can spread the experience over two semesters or if you can do the internship over the summer.  We also encourage you to consider international internships, thus combining practical work experience with a study abroad experience!

If you decide not to take 3 s.h. of an Academic Internship, then up to 2 s.h. of the experiential learning requirement can be fulfilled with the following courses:

  • ARTH:3994        Art History Practicum 1-2 s.h.

  • ARTH:3995        Independent Study in Art History 1-2 s.h.

Please arrange a meeting with the Art History DUS to discuss how you plan to approach the experiential learning component of the degree: amy-huang-2@uiowa.edu.

*Before Fall 2027, the AAM track requires 3 s.h. of Academic Internship (CCP:1201).  If you would like to substitute ARTH:3994 or ARTH:3995 for 1 or 2 of these s.h., please email amy-huang-2@uiowa.edu

Find an internship: Finding an internship can take several months, and we’re here to help! You will be most successful if you start talking to Art History faculty and career coaches about your interests, and if you start looking for an internship at least six months in advance.  Local searches will have shorter hiring timelines and national searches longer, with some national institutions hiring in the fall for the following year’s summer internships. 

If you don’t have a museum or gallery in mind, check the end of this document for a list of local museums and galleries.  Here are more resources to help you with the search: 

  • Handshake, a free internship and job search platform geared towards students
  • Pomerantz Career Center Internship Search Tips
  • Pomerantz Career Center Arts, Media, and Entertainment Resources (at minimum, see Suggested Search Terms & additional search platforms)
  • Pomerantz Center Career Coaches: Crystal Lewis & Alaysia McAtee (30-minute appointments are scheduled via MyUI, select Arts, Media, and Entertainment as your career interest in the drop down to see Crystal and Alaysia’s schedules)

Your internship can be paid or unpaid, but it needs to meet the following requirements:

  • Be at a museum, gallery, auction house, library, or historical house.
  • Length and hours per week are set by the site, but for the experience to be approved for CCP:1201 Academic Internship enrollment (which is required for the program of study) it must meet the following time requirements:
    • Minimum of 6 weeks
    • 75 hours minimum per semester hour up to 3 s.h. (1 s.h. is 75 hours of work experience within the same semester as you are enrolled in CCP:1201, 2 s.h. is 150 hours, 3 s.h. is 225 hours)
  • Have a clearly identified supervisor who is a professional in the field (not a graduate student). This professional should be on site and supervising you throughout the duration of the internship. Please note: in order to register the internship, you will need this person’s e-mail address and an agreement about the days and times when you will be at the internship.
  • Begin with a brief orientation to familiarize you with best practices and standards for the organization.
  • At least 80% of your hours should be spent on professional work beyond running errands or being a docent or tour guide. Professional duties might include any of the following:
    • labeling, researching, archiving, cleaning, documenting, and assessing objects
    • object database creation or maintenance
    • exhibition research and design
    • communications, publicity, promotion, and/or strategic planning tasks
    • educational programming

Report & register the internship

Report: Once you’ve found your internship, log on to your Handshake account. Click on “Career Center” from the left navigation, then “Experiences” in the middle of the page, and “Submit an Experience”.  Provide information about the internship, including the e-mail address of your field supervisor.

When it asks you to pick the “Experience Template” on the form, choose CCP:1201 Academic Internship 1-3 Credit Hours. 

Register for CCP:1201: About a week after you report the internship in Handshake and your field supervisor has also approved the experience via the Handshake form, you will receive notification with instructions for registering for CCP:1201 on MyUI.  You must register for this course in MyUI and complete the course assignments to receive internship credit for the major. 

Please note that the internship must take place at the same time as enrollment in CCP:1201 Academic Internship. You may not register for internship courses retroactively. 

Summer internships

Another important thing to know is that if you do an internship over the summer, you will be charged tuition. Here is a calculator to see how much tuition would be for a summer internship:   https://tuition.ais.its.uiowa.edu/rates?college=T&program

Funding opportunities for summer and international internships 

Luckily, there are a number of sources to which you can apply to help offset the cost of summer tuition or doing an international internship (in the order of deadlines):

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