Art History
AP History of Art takes students on a Grand Tour of civilization's most notable achievements in the visual arts, beginning at the beginning with Paleolithic cave painting and continuing to the present day. A significant portion of the course content covers art beyond the European tradition. The class typically meets twice per week on the BB&N campus and then spends a double period every Friday afternoon studying actual works of art. Most of these classes consist of student-led presentations at the Museum of Fine Arts or the Harvard University Art Museum. However, the group has also visited: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford; the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis; the Gropius House in Lincoln; Frank Lloyd Wright's Zimmerman House in Manchester, New Hampshire; Philip Johnson's Glass House, in New Canaan, Connecticut; and other sites in the area. Past classes have gone together on a museum weekend to New York City or a ten-day trip to Venice, which also incorporated day trips to Padua and Ravenna. Although sponsored by the Art Department, the class is an interdisciplinary combination of history and art which provides a unique overview of almost the entire span of human history. It provides preparation for the spring Advanced Placement exam, and students are expected to remain in the class through the entire year. (Limited to seniors; enrollment no more than 12).