Indigo, thanks for your input but it does seem a bit biased and rather
antogonistic towards art historians. Perhaps it's a misunderstanding about
art history: art historians look at history through artistic developments,
study art in relationship to its social, cultural, political and individual
(creator) contexts. In other words, art historians are not merely a
subcategory of historians, but an entirely different type of historian. Of
course, with contemporary art the art historian may be a bit more
short-sighted and more focused on "art -isms". In many cases, an art
historian could not replace a historian nor could a historian be
substituted for an art historian. It's like asking a historian who
specializes in medieval Europe to replace a historian who specializes in
medieval India. Sure, they're both medievalists, but that's as far as the
similarity goes. This doesn't mean they don't have knowledge of each
other's areas.

Art historians do curate interdisciplinary shows and they're not always
about beauty -- art is not necessarily beautiful just as science is not
necessarily difficult. I do wonder, though, how many science museums would
consider hiring an art historian as a full-time, not a contractual,
employee.

And, I did say I apply for jobs as director and did before I earned my PhD.
Perhaps I wasn't clear: I apply for director jobs for which my background
and previous types of employment have qualified me, such as historic
houses. A couple of these jobs I didn't get and  a couple I had to turn
down for various reasons. I don't think a PhD makes me qualified for jobs
for which I have no experience but I also think my years of experience,
paid and volunteer, make me qualified for more than an entry level
position. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I should AGAIN crawl my way up from
answering phones to running an art advisor's office to administrating
educational programs, etc. Gee, thanks, that was really supportive advice.

Loretta Lorance, PhD
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