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This program is offered jointly with The Smithsonian Associates.
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.
To receive
additional information about this or any other Corcoran program,
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Apply Now >
Contact Program Head
Cindy Williams at willicy@si.edu
| Elective Courses
| |
| Ceramics | |
| > | Survey of Ceramics * |
| Costume |
|
| > | History of Costume * |
| Craft |
|
| > | Ethnic & Folk Art Expression in Contemporary Craft |
| > | History of Craft |
| > | American Craft Furniture * |
| Furniture |
|
| > | American Colonial and Federal Furniture 1650-1840* |
| > | Connoisseurship of American Furniture* |
| > | American Victorian Furniture* |
| > | Survey of 20th Century American Furniture* |
| Glass |
|
| > | History of Glass* |
| > | Stained Glass in America, 1830-1930 |
| Material Culture |
|
| > | Goods in the Gilded Age: Material Culture in American Fiction, 1865-1920 |
| > | Consumer Revolutions: Colonial, Victorian, and Modern |
| Metals |
|
| > | Survey of Silver and Metals in America* |
| > | Jewelry and Metalwork |
| Textiles |
|
| > | History of Textile* |
| > | Textiles of the Period Interior |
| > | American Quilts |
| > | Ethnic/Cultural Textile Traditions in America |
| European |
|
| > | Urban Centers: Paris, New York and Washington, 1925-1940 |
| > | Eighteenth-Century French Decorative Arts |
| > | Issues and Problems in Modern European Decorative Arts |
| > | Radical Decoration: Design at the Fins de Siècle |
| > | Robert Adam and the Adam Style |
| > | 18th Century Furniture and the English Interior |
| > | Royal Furnishings of Versailles |
| General Decorative Arts |
|
| > | Asian Influence in American Decorative Arts |
| > | History of Architecture and Interior Design |
| > | Women and Design Arts: 1860-1910 |
| > | The Decorative Arts of Dining |
| * Indicates survey course offered at least once every two years. |
|
|
Required Courses Total: 4 courses/12 credits | ||
| > | Survey of Decorative Arts I | 3 |
| > | Survey of Decorative Arts II | 3 |
| > | Proseminar | 3 |
| 9 |
||
| Plus one of the following three choices: |
||
| > | Decorative Arts Theory | 3 |
| > | Museology | 3 |
| > | Material Culture in its Contexts: History and Theory | 3 |
| 3 | ||
The MA in the History of Decorative Arts is awarded upon completion of 48
credits with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 and successful completion
of the Masters Examination or Thesis. Required courses are Proseminar, Survey
of Decorative Arts I and II, and Museology or Theory of Decorative Arts.
The student declares a major and minor area of concentration at the completion
of 24 credits; or, with a 3.5 minimum grade point average, may petition to
write a Thesis. A Masters Examination is taken in the student’s final
semester; or, if writing a Thesis, the student is not required to take an
exam, but registers for Maintaining Status in the semester following completion
of coursework.