ChooseWhy Choose This Program?
Why Study Visual & Material Culture at Goucher?
This program is a 21st-century approach to art history and preservation. The curriculum expands upon these disciplines to include the examination and role of images, objects, architecture, and the built environment not only as reflections of history, but actors that make history. Billboards, Instagram, fashion, urban green spaces—they all tell a story. Our students learn what those stories are by investigating the meaning and purpose behind everything that people and societies create as ways to express emotion and thought.
LearnWhat Will You Learn?
What Will You Learn?
Hands-on learning in the field is essential to this program. Our program uses the Baltimore area as a “learning lab,” in which the built environment, museums, architectural landscape, urban green spaces, and monuments provide opportunities to experience the multifaceted ways in which people understand, shape, and respond to the world through art and material culture. Additionally, students examine artifacts and rare books in our Special Collections and Archives and build focus exhibitions from our Art and Artifact Collection, which contains over 3,000 pieces. Learn More
DoWhat Will You Do?
What Can You Do With a Visual & Material Culture Degree?
Local internship opportunities at the Maryland Historical Society, Preservation Maryland, Maryland State Archives, Walters Art Museum, Maryland Art Place, and Baltimore Museum of Art prepare students for varied careers in the arts while challenging them to think about where they see themselves after graduation, whether it's jobs like museum curation, artifact preservation, or the nonprofit art sector. Additional programs at Goucher—such as a concentration in arts management or a certificate in secondary education—also help students find careers managing or teaching the arts.
Course Curriculum
Faculty
Program Contact
April Oettinger
Department Chair, Professor of Visual and Material Culture
Areas of Expertise: Early Modern Visual Culture; Venetian Art; History of the Book
View April Oettinger's Bio
Faculty
Rick Delaney
Assistant Professor of Art and Visual and Material Culture
Areas of Expertise: Digital Media; Printmaking
View Rick Delaney's Bio
Tina Hirsch Sheller
Assistant Professor of Visual and Material Culture
Areas of Expertise: Historic Preservation; Material Culture
View Tina Hirsch Sheller's Bio
Allyn Massey
Associate Professor
Area of Expertise: Sculpture and 3-D Thinking
Matthew McConville
Associate Professor
Area of Expertise: Painting
View Matthew McConville's Bio
Professor Emeritus or Emerita or Emeriti
Arnold Sanders
Professor Emeritus
Areas of Expertise: Literature; History of the Book
Affiliate Staff
Janna Dyk
Director of Exhibitions and Curator
Melissa Straw
Director of Conservation and Preservation
Kristen Welzenbach
Digital Initiatives Librarian
Study Abroad
Goucher’s Visual Material & Culture Program, in collaboration with the Arts Administration Program, offers a three-week study abroad course, The Arts of Amsterdam: Arts Administration in Amsterdam. A course focused on global contemporary art and the Venice Biennale (based in Venice) is under development. Students may also elect to study art history at Goucher-approved, semester-long programs in a number of countries and regions, including Italy, France, Denmark, Scotland, and West Africa.
Visit the Office of Global Education for more information.
Opportunities & Internships
Internships
Internships help students explore possibilities, apply classroom learning, and gain experience. Explore internships and credit options.
Internships for college credit are possible through established relationships with
area museums, preservation organizations, libraries, cultural nonprofits, government
agencies, artists, galleries, and design studios, as well as through professional
relationships researched by the student. These provide students with hands-on experience
and help them establish professional contacts. Goucher students may take courses through
a consortium of institutions, including the Johns Hopkins University, Maryland Institute
College of Art, and Towson University.
The Spencer Award
The Eleanor Spencer Award is granted each year to a rising sophomore who has declared a major in visual and material culture or a minor in studio art. It funds outstanding research projects requiring travel to complete. Proposals are submitted to the program chair early in the spring semester and are reviewed by the program faculty.
Student Employment
Student employment connects students to both on and off-campus opportunities. The Career Education Office provides resources and support to students with or without Federal Work Study to find jobs, submit applications, and learn more about the job search process. Students have access to Handshake — a website for job postings, events, resumes/cover letters, and career management.
Major & Career Exploration
Exploring career options, choosing a major, and making career decisions is a multi-step process in which all students are encouraged to engage early and often. Goucher students have a variety of resources available through the Majors and Career page to assist them in this process.
Job Search
A Goucher education prepares students for today’s job market and beyond. Students can explore job opportunities and access job search resources through the CEO Job Search page.
Graduate & Professional School
Students access resources for searching and applying to graduate and professional school through the CEO Graduate and Professional School page, through faculty and staff members, or utilizing their own resources, network and tools.
Academic Partnerships
Goucher College has partnered with other institutions to provide students with expanded academic and post-graduate opportunities. Partnerships include dual-degree programs and accelerated graduate pathways with the following colleges: Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Loyola, Middlebury, Notre Dame of Maryland University, University of Maryland Baltimore.
I am a Global Changemaker
Lily Craig ‘25
Interned at Lovely Lane Museum and Archives
“My internship has taught me how to apply and use the knowledge I have learned at Goucher in real world situations.”
News
- February 2, 2021
Goucher College will create the Collaborative Humanities Laboratory to enhance the study of visual, material, and historical culture using a $149,961 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant. Goucher was one of only five institutions nationwide to receive a grant from the NEH's Humanities Initiatives at Colleges and Universities.
- February 13, 2019
Professor April Oettinger has been appointed a Visiting Senior Fellow at the National Gallery of Art's Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts.
Events
- November 25, 2025
Goucher Art Galleries is proud to present IF UR LOST, a solo exhibition by Baltimore-based artist Dara Lorenzo, on view in the Rosenberg Gallery from November 13, 2025 through...
- November 25, 2025
Goucher College Art Galleries proudly presents Soft Flesh, Volatile Insides, a multimedia exhibition that unravels the intricate relationship between the body and societal...
- November 25, 2025
Goucher Art Galleries is pleased to present To See the Forest for the Trees, a new site-specific installation by interdisciplinary artist Samantha Sethi. Responding directly...