What does an art history major do?

March 17, 2018 · by · in

Glad you asked! Currently,

  • Student Assistant, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum (BICLM)
  • Docent, the Wexner Center for the Arts
  • Outreach Assistant, Cleveland Museum of Art Education Department
  • Curatorial Assistant, Columbus Museum of Art

I’ve also volunteered and interned with the Cleveland Museum of Art since 2015. While studying abroad in London, I volunteered at the House of Illustration and the Sir John Soane Museum.

After OSU, I will earn an MA in Art History and work in museum education.

On the day to day, though, art history majors read about pictures, look at pictures, and write about pictures. My art historical interests are diverse. I’m most likely going to write my undergraduate thesis about the heritage of medieval manuscripts in modernist woodcut novels. Other than that, I love art by and about women, as well as the connections between art history and contemporary art practice. One of my favorite artists is Barbara Shermund.

Barbara Shermund was an American magazine cartoonist. As part of my job at BICLM, I got to archive hundreds of her works. We hung a show of her life’s work at BICLM in Fall of 2018, which I helped to curate!

Here’s a link to the exhibit announcement: http://cartoons.osu.edu/events/tell-me-a-story-where-the-bad-girl-wins-the-life-and-art-of-barbara-shermund/

And here’s a link to the New Yorker article about the show: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-lovely-nineteen-twenties-flapper-cartoons-of-barbara-shermund?fbclid=IwAR2qpOyXvSMU0skUcHD2K7gzBQc0D7ki8Q2rivR0kK60tHtEmQOCNoe5iKo

Here’s one of my favorite cartoons by Shermund, which I personally archived, that became the lead image for the show!