Applicants for the MA degree in Art History may be admitted with 18 units of undergraduate credit in art history or with 12 such units plus a substantial amount of credit in related areas of study. The MA in art history requires a minimum of 30 units in art history, including 3 units of 511, 6 units of 596, and 3 to 6 units of 910. With the approval of the advisor, other courses may be substituted for a portion of the 24-unit art history requirement. A maximum of 9 units may be in individual studies including 900 and 910. A reading knowledge of French or German or other approved language must be demonstrated before the third semester. In the last semester students must either successfully pass a Comprehensive Exam or complete a thesis. The Comprehensive Exam may be taken no more than twice. Thesis must be completed by the end of the fourth semester.
Special resources for graduate work include the works devoted to art within the T. E. Hanley Collection of 37,000 volumes; the Samuel H. Kress Collection of 14th to 19th century European art, including the surviving panels of the Retablo of Ciudad Rodrigo by Fernando Gallego; the Charles Leonard Pfeiffer Collection of American art, consisting of more than 100 contemporary American paintings; the Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection of contemporary American paintings and European, Latin American, and Oriental objects of art; and miscellaneous collections, including the University Print Collection containing notable examples of the various graphic arts. The University of Arizona Museum of Art schedules exhibitions from these collections and, from time to time, other exhibitions of general or special interest. The Center for Creative Photography houses 50,000 photographic prints, archives of negatives, correspondence, and memorabilia as well as a specialized library of over 12,000 volumes.