Jobs in Art History Degree

[Anonymous]

I’m the person who double-majored in art history and journalism.

Questions for the OP - did your dd double-major or minor? Art history grad school requires foreign language reading knowledge. Does your dd have a decent level of fluency in a foreign language? Did she intern? My college had a gallery and an art library. Internships in either of these could open the door in those fields. I have a niece who studied art, and always had several jobs: teaching art, working at a gallery, selling her artwork at fairs and online, creating private artwork. She eventually became a ft art teacher but still does a lot of private work. As an art historian, your dd should look at cultural organizations, private schools, galleries, museums, art publications, art libraries. Can she do graphic design? That might open doors. If she has foreign language skills, she can look for jobs that use that, whether they are art history related or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your daughter will be a college graduate. Many can't state such.

She'll be fine.

She will be competing with other college graduates with more marketable degrees for those high paying jobs.

Most of the good paying jobs for art history majors are in teaching, which requires a masters/PhD, which means paying even more money to earn a decent salary.

There are only so many museum director roles, and a college graduate is certainly not going to get such a job in 3 to 5 years, let alone just out of college.

https://research.com/careers/art-history-careers

Define "high paying" straight out of college.

Do you happen to know the median income in the U.S. for a middle class household?

A bachelor's degree will go towards at least being in the middle class. Then improve from there.

ok, it's not even "high paying". She'll be lucky to get a job that pays $40k out of college.

A bachelor's degree in art history isn't going to be enough to be middle class in a hcol area like NY, LA, DC. Pay goes with col. Just google jobs in the midwest in the museum field for entry level. They pay like $15 an hour. A barista makes about that much. You can make more in hcol but again, the col would make that "higher wage minimum wage. In CA $50K is low wage. You would qualify for government assistance in CA with that salary.

[Anonymous]

I was an art history major. It was great preparation for almost any analytical field lots of writing combined with visual analysis. I did go to a more technical grad school HYP. Many grad schools find that major with good grades as long as you are qualified. She could for instance check out user interface design or anything in the design field. She could also look at design patent law. The museum/auction house jobs are pretty much trust fund only imo.

[Anonymous]

I'm the consultant art history major. I made today's equivalent of 95k when i graduated college. After doing that for 2 years i went to grad school (in art!), which was fully funded and came with a teaching stipend. I'm a lawyer now

[Anonymous]

There are a few possibilities for a generic liberal arts degree.

1. Get recruited into consulting with top grades at a top school. I'm guessing this is not happening as OP would not be posting if it were.

2. Parlay writing for student publications into a journalism or communications job. I also assume this isn't a possibility.

3. K12 education. Pay isn't great but you'll never want for work.

4. Grad school in something more remunerative.

5. The gladiator pit. Mass-apply to random entry level jobs that require a BA but not much else. Hope you can rise to the top by dint of your writing/critical thinking skills, grit and hard work.

I think that's more or less it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Art history majors getting consulting jobs are either top students from target colleges where companies recruit or have solid family connections.

Even at target colleges, it's rare.
Why would they pick art history when there are applied math, CS, engineering, econ, finance, etc. majors.

Ummm . . . because they wanted to study art history, or also because they wanted art history to be the way they earned a bachelor's degree on their way to a career that will use some of those related skills?

I was talking about the high profile consulting companies, but then college is not a place for hobbies when you pay $$$ unless you are a trust fund kid.

Art history isn't a hobby: it's a major. So is French literature. So is history. Just because something isn't named after a job doesn't mean it isn't worth studying. And it also doesn't mean its graduates won't make a good living, have a good life, and set their kids up for success.

signed, Humanist who makes a perfectly good living without a trust fund

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm so surprised nobody thought this was a troll post. I did. Shocked with all the genuine advice and lack of flaming.

OP - as with any new grad, she needs to figure out what she wants to do and apply to jobs. If she wants a job in art - then look to museums. But if she just wants a general job, I don't see how she's in any worse shape than an english or history major. I'd assume all three degrees require writing and analytics skills that could be applied in the workplace.

I called troll a couple of pages back. The details are suspect, and weirdly vague. It’s absolutely aimed at firing up the anti-liberal arts maniacs.

[Anonymous]

I was an art history major in the 80's. The breadth of knowledge I gained from that major is incomparable-history, politics, religion, civilizations, etc. I can answer over 80% of Jeopardy clues. I'm also a great conversationalist and can discuss a wide range of topics due to my education. Don't knock it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was an art history major in the 80's. The breadth of knowledge I gained from that major is incomparable-history, politics, religion, civilizations, etc. I can answer over 80% of Jeopardy clues. I'm also a great conversationalist and can discuss a wide range of topics due to my education. Don't knock it.

You would make a conversationalist, no doubt, but most art history majors aren't getting a good paying job without a graduate degree, which means spending more money.

[Anonymous]

You can see biodata of management and curators at National Art Gallery.

https://www.nga.gov/about/leadership.html#:~:text=Carmen%20Ramos-,E.,with%20current%20and%20future%20audiences.

https://www.nga.gov/press/bios.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was an art history major in the 80's. The breadth of knowledge I gained from that major is incomparable-history, politics, religion, civilizations, etc. I can answer over 80% of Jeopardy clues. I'm also a great conversationalist and can discuss a wide range of topics due to my education. Don't knock it.

You would make a conversationalist, no doubt, but most art history majors aren't getting a good paying job without a graduate degree, which means spending more money.

Art History phds, along with most other humanities and scientific phds, do not pay for grad school for the most part. PhD programs support the students with tuition remission and teaching stipends. It is certainly not a lot, between 30-40k a year, but you can live on it and you make further connections in grad school and gain experience teaching. I also did museum internships while in grad school.

[Anonymous]

Get an MBA (there are one year programs available lots of places). Obviously, we don't know anything about what the kid wants, but something like marketing might resonate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was an art history major in the 80's. The breadth of knowledge I gained from that major is incomparable-history, politics, religion, civilizations, etc. I can answer over 80% of Jeopardy clues. I'm also a great conversationalist and can discuss a wide range of topics due to my education. Don't knock it.

You would make a conversationalist, no doubt, but most art history majors aren't getting a good paying job without a graduate degree, which means spending more money.

Art History phds, along with most other humanities and scientific phds, do not pay for grad school for the most part. PhD programs support the students with tuition remission and teaching stipends. It is certainly not a lot, between 30-40k a year, but you can live on it and you make further connections in grad school and gain experience teaching. I also did museum internships while in grad school.

I'll take opportunity cost for $1000, Alex.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She can go to grad school.

Won't a Masters in Art History have the same prospects?

There's a PhD glut you know?
I have an Art Historian friend who bounced from tenure track jobs at Smith, U Chicago and finally UC Riverside where he was living in a trailer before ending up in his parents basement and wondering if he should go into the plumbing trade like his uncle.
Then he decided to stop going after big name schools and settled for a regional no-name college that was so happy to have him in a tenured position. The guy was published, Ivy Phd, and had lots of grant funding. But even with the regional college salary, not enough to raise a family on so there are no progeny.
So the suggestion to go to grad school for Art History applies only to people who want to financially struggle for a few decades or come from a lot of family financial support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big 3 consultant but you have network.

Likely too late for this if the student is graduating in May. Recruiting for most consulting, finance programs, etc. is probably over. That being said, it doesn’t hurt to sift through LinkedIn and other job boards to see if openings remain.