Course requirements

Required coursework for the Iowa Idea 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.

Internship

Find an internship: Finding an internship can take several months of planning, and we’re here to help! You will be most successful if you start talking to faculty and looking for an internship at least four months before you plan to start the internship. If you don’t have a museum or gallery in mind, here are some places to look and people to help you with the search: 

• Handshake
• Pomerantz Career Center
• Pomerantz Career Coach Abi Case (abi-case@uiowa.edu) 

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.
• 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

Register the internship: 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 supervisor.

When it asks you to pick the “Experience Type”, choose CCP:1201 Academic Internship. 

Get credit for the internship by enrolling in CCP:1201: About a week after you register the internship, you will receive an e-mail from the Pomerantz Center with instructions for registering for CCP:1201 on MyUI.  You must register for this course to receive internship credit for the major. 

Register for 1-3 semester hours (s.h.) through the Pomerantz’s Academic Internship (CCP:1201)

• 1 s.h. is a minimum of 75 hours of work experience within the same semester as you are enrolled in CCP:1201
• 2 s.h. is a minimum of 150 hours of work experience within the same semester as you are enrolled in CCP:1201
• 3 s.h. is a minimum of 225 hours within the same semester as you are enrolled in CCP:1201. This is a lot of hours! Consider registering for a 3 s.h. internship over the summer rather than during the academic year.