How I Became an Art Historian
by Holly Todd , Ph . D .
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When I went back to school my senior year , I was happy to discover that art history was one of the short elective blocks on offer . My grandmother had collected abstract art in the late 1950s and 1960s — one of her nieces had married a Swiss abstract painter — and my mother continued to collect in a more low-key , personal way . Having grown up with these works and visited museums and galleries since I was small , I was happy to learn more . After I graduated the following summer , my parents took my two younger brothers and me on a three-week whirlwind tour of Europe : Rome , Florence , Venice , Lucerne ( to visit that Swiss artist who was now scandalously married to my cousin ’ s former nanny ), Paris , Munich , Heidelberg , and London . Overjoyed to see many of the works I had studied at school , I was hooked !
“ I CHOSE TO STUDY ART BECAUSE IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF MY LIFE ... NOT ONLY BEING CREATIVE BUT HAVING A STRONG INTEREST IN DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS THAT ARE USED IN MAKING ART . I LOVE TO LOOK AT ALL THE CULTURES AROUND THE WORLD AND SEE WHAT THEY DO AND HOW THEIR LIVES ARE SHOWN THROUGH THEIR ART AND STORYTELLING .” SHELLY SCHOENESHOEFER
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