MA History of Decorative Arts

Corcoran School of Art

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 Scholarship in the history of decorative arts has only recently been treated with the critical, intellectual, and theoretical rigor that enriches the study of art history. For this very reason, the field of decorative arts history is enormously exciting: the significant objects that demand attention offer extraordinary opportunities for graduate students to contribute to and define a bourgeoning field of scholarship. Traditionally, study of the decorative arts has been dominated by matters of connoisseurship, material production, and provenance, all of which are rightly integral to the subject. This Masters Program is committed to expanding the scholarly discourse surrounding these objects, recognizing the content and significance of their history.

The unique aspect of this program is its commitment to object-based teaching in a professional environment, made possible by its situation within The Smithsonian Associates, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC. The intention of this program is not to move away from the close study of the art works, but to integrate that formal analysis with substantive critical thought and historical research. We seek out faculty who are sympathetic to this pedagogic approach and students who embrace this intellectual challenge. The mission of this graduate program is to realize the history of decorative arts as a field of serious and significant scholarship.