A Word from Professor Carol

We encounter the arts in history too often as an afterthought or as a footnote in a chronology devoted to great men and cataclysmic upheavals.  The culture that shaped those great men and the social forces that sparked the upheavals are recorded in the arts.  Songs chronicled events long before any historian looked back to calculate their impact.

In fact, the arts illuminate and explain some of the most important facets of history.  They bring the past to life in a tangible way.  They tell us what was important to the people who lived in that time and place.  By experiencing the arts of those people, we share something real and stand on common ground with them, just as we do by standing on Plymouth Rock or the fields of Gettysburg. 

What is American Art?  It's the simple psalm singing of the Puritans, the classical European traditions transplanted to Philadelphia, the poetry of slaves, the paintings of the Hudson River Valley, music that could cross a continent in saddle bags, architecture from Spanish Missions to our nation's Capitol, the jazz of New Orleans, and so much more.  It is our cultural heritage and a legacy that we must pass on. 

So I invite you to watch the video and explore this web site.  We can't possibly cover all that is important, but that is merely to say the joy of discovery will never end.