Art History

Westover has its own history of Art History: It's been part of our curriculum from the beginning (1909). Furthermore, Theodate Pope Riddle, architect of Westover and one of America's first successful female architects, was a friend of noted impressionist painter Mary Cassatt.

One of the biggest goals of our Art History program is for students to feel comfortable being in a museum, looking at art, and achieving a sense of visual literacy that enables them to analyze what they see and to truly engage with it, to stand in front of it for longer than the average few seconds.

Here at Westover, everyone studies Art History for at least one trimester - not a typical requirement at the high school level. We offer trimester-long elective courses in concentrated areas such as the Italian Renaissance or Early 20th Century Art; full-year advanced placement courses; and Humanities courses which combines art history and music history- studying genres that can be seen through both types of creative expression.

The art history classroom boasts state-of-the-art equipment for viewing art slides and videos. What's more, every term, each elective course goes on a relevant, stimulating - and memorable - field trip to major museums and shows in New York, New Haven, and Hartford.

Art History, in particular, offers students an additional lens with which they can examine the past from a variety of different angles - social, historical, psychological, and political. Each year students in Art History classes take field trips to New York locations such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, the Frick Collection, Lincoln Center, and Dia:Beacon and the Yale British Center for the Arts in New Haven.