The University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Graduate

Graduate Studies Program

Founded in 1969, our M.A. Program is the only graduate degree program in the field at a public university in New England. On average, the program enrolls fifteen-to-twenty students, ensuring close collaboration between the students and nine full-time faculty members. Our faculty’s active research agenda reflects in a range of courses that highlight the discipline’s diversity of methodological approaches, geographic areas, and thematic issues.

We prepare students for doctoral study and provide professional training for many careers, including museum and historical society work, government programs in the arts, the art market, journalism, and teaching at all levels. Our recent graduates have been accepted into doctoral programs at Princeton, University of California at Berkeley, Columbia, the Courtauld, John Hopkins, the Graduate Center at CUNY, and Boston University, among others. Graduates also have continued to full-time careers in the museum world and art market at organizations that include the Clark Art Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Bonhams and Skinner Auctioneers.

The program financially supports graduate students through teaching assistantships and fellowship awards. Teaching positions provide students with comprehensive financial support comprising a stipend, 95% of health insurance costs, and full tuition credit. For students who do not receive teaching assistantships, fellowships are awarded to help defray the cost of tuition.


Application | Program Requirements | Funding | Diversity Fellowship | Courses | Graduate Studies Program Guide