Graduate History of Art & Design

Art as a force in society and the artist as the creator of that force tell a tale that is wide and deep. The path is broad, and it’s telling both lush and textured.

The history of art and design at Pratt is that story at its richest; standing at the convergence of art and design in the studio, the gallery and the classroom; exposing the capture and pursuit of aesthetic expression through digital media, painting, print making, performative arts, fashion, and the endless array of expressive forms that exist and are yet to be formulated; charting the voice and posture of the artist across the horizons of time, perception, and cultural context.  These are the wealth of information, interpretation and motivation that art and design history bring to the screen, the table, the bench and the easel at Pratt.

The object, the image, the concept, the act, ART at Pratt is the voice of human expression over time, the history of the aesthetic animal freed from the captivity of predisposition and predictability, loosed on an unsuspecting world, and embodied in the educated arts professional.  Bridging the classroom and the studio in an emergent world that is no longer monolithic and canonic, a new past is upon us and the future is its prey.

Every graduate student's program includes "behind-the-scenes" experiences at exhibitions. Interconnections with other departments in all areas of design-- interior, industrial, communications, fashion, and fine arts-- as well as with the School of Liberal Arts create a unique experience that places the work of the practicing artist in context and enlivens the work of the art and design historian.

A Pratt Graduate student is surrounded and inundated in an aesthetic and intellectual swirl like none other. Pratt's faculty is distinguished in training and experience, with an impressive array of degrees and other professional credentials. It reflects a broad definition of art and design history by including a film historian, photography critic, professional conservators, and authors of volumes on design history, as well as specialists in traditional chronological and geographic areas with a rich variety of scholarly publications.

Graduate Programs
Master of Science
Dual Master's with Fine Arts MFA
Dual Master's with Information and Library Science MS