Art history faculty members at MECA are deeply aware they are teaching artists. Assignments, lectures, and readings broaden students’ understanding of the historical and critical contexts of their own work.
There’s an emphasis on writing and critical thinking – vital skills for success in the professional art world. But there also are many assignments that involve creating art, individually and collaboratively. The curriculum provides a strong foundation in the history of art, but also emphasizes the wider cultural context of that history. The amazingly diverse faculty includes specialists in Medieval, Renaissance, Asian, African, modern, and contemporary art; curatorial studies; and visual culture.

Art reinvents the world. That’s what some say. If it’s true it makes sense for an artist to know something about that world; to understand rational analysis, the value of an ordered intellect, the power of questions, the
difference between the important and the trivial, how to translate thoughts into words, and link concepts. MECA graduates educated artists, prepared to join the human conversation.