The Story of an Art Historian

I just applied for a scholarship in which I had to write about why I chose study art history. I thought I would share my response...

During my sophomore year of high school, like many other students, I felt lost. The decision loomed to choose a career path. As an elective, I chose to take an AP Art History course. My teacher, Miss Parenti, was so incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about what she taught that it inspired me to find that passion, and thus I hoped I could spend my life as passionate about my career as her. Unfortunately, I struggled through the first part of the course, and I felt defeated.

Half way through the semester, we looked at Giotto’s  “Lamentation.” Everything I had been struggling with all along finally clicked. I knew in that moment that I wanted to learn everything I could about art history, so I could share with other students the same passion that Miss Parenti shared with me.

Thus, I chose to go to the University of Iowa to study art history. However, I realized during my studies that being an art historian was more about your service to the community than it was about calling yourself a doctor upon attaining a PhD or about knowing everything. Like my fellow undergraduates, I began pondering what field of art history I wanted to study further in graduate school. As I fell in love with modern and contemporary art, I had an epiphany.

One day, I was at the Art Institute of Chicago with my mom. As we wandered, we walked into Hito Steyerl’s video instillation, “In Free Fall.” As my mother and I watched, we were both reduced to tears as we watched the video in which two flight attendants with stone cold expressions went through the motions of explaining the safety procedures of an emergency exit in flight. Their beautifully choreographed motions seemed like a dance, juxtaposed with a background in which an airplane fell toward a rotating earth, mimicked by the rotation of the CD. All of this served as a metaphor for 9/11 with its devastation, destruction, and downfall.

In that moment, I knew that as an art historian, I wanted to study more of Hito Steyerl. I want to go beyond her work to use it as a base to study contemporary Middle Eastern art, as it fluctuates into the Western contemporary art world. My research can be a voice that speaks about the cultural conflict plaguing the US and the Middle East for years. Art and art historians can be the path for discourse begins of how to end a plague of violence and conflict.

My undergraduate degree in art history from the University of Iowa helped me to find my passions, and it will continue to give me a strong base to leave, explore, and travel to research an idea that will serve the world in conflict.