Recently the President made a remark critical of art history education, like you might get a better job in manufacturing.

So then critics piled on. Hey, the teaching of liberal arts is a massive industry that receives massive federal subsidies. Go gore somebody else’s ox.

People speak up for the study of art history in particular, and the liberal arts in general, but few say why we should study these things.  Indeed, the liberal arts are under question in American education, and the defenses of it I have found over the past few years say little that is meaningful.

So here is an explanation of what an art history education should provide. This explanation is a model of what I expect from other defenses of the liberation arts, but I am not holding my breath. Read the rest of this entry »