Prepare Yourself with AP Art History

When it comes to thinking about one’s career, it is important to consider the activities and credentials that one has or builds up on while still in high school. The College Board has long started offering AP courses, which have advanced curriculums and course content. This can be used for additional credits in college or even a way to boost one’s chances of getting into one’s choice of college.

Art History is one of the major courses offered by a variety of universities. This is why AP Art History has become an official part of the Advanced Placement courses and examinations list. In order to prepare high school students for their college years, the College Board designed AP Art History so that it will incorporate the introductory Art History college course techniques to the AP Course.

Know all about AP Art History, the activities that happens in class, and the resource materials that can help progress your study of the arts.

What is AP Art History?

This particular AP course is concerned with teaching and examining the various forms of art. This will include visiting the art forms and mediums used in the ancient societies to the varying cultural artistic depictions of different culture and races.

AP Art History students will be taught about the importance of putting and looking at artworks from the perspective of the context of their own eras so there will be fewer biases during discussions. Student will also learn how to articulate these observations by understanding the way that this particular form of art relates and conveys its message through visual communication.

In university, the course content for Art History covers four specific areas that AP Art History also covers. These are painting and drawing, sculpture, architecture, and other media such as photography, ceramic, fiber arts, and the like. In college courses, these are taken with varying concentration degrees. For instance, painting and drawing usually take up almost half of the course, while other media take up only 5 to 10% ideally.

What Activities Can You Expect in AP Art History Class?

To make AP Art History more interesting and engaging for students, the College Board suggests a variety of classroom and outside-the-classroom activities.

• In-class drawings of teachers and fellow students.

• The convention of power is part of the course content. Convention of power depicts how students understand the relationship between the two. After the exercise, the class can have a group discussion of how they communicated the power of their subjects through the details in their drawings.

• Incorporate manuscript exercises.

• In order to allow students the chance to be more appreciative and interested of designs and crafts related to medieval illuminated letters, they are allowed to create their own illustrations using different mediums.

• Conduct museum and cathedral visits.

• Since architecture is also a major course content in AP Art History, the students should have a grasp of the past works of artists, as well as have an exercise that would allow the students to know how to look at an art work and find meaning in it. Cathedral visits will enhance and aid in their knowledge and appreciation of architecture when they reach college.

Books That Would Be Helpful for AP Art History

• Barron’s AP Art History by John Nici
• Art History: Test Preparation Study Guide, Questions and Answers by National Learning Corporation
• The Best Test Prep for the AP Art History by Frank Chmiel and Larry Krieger

As for aspiring AP Art History teachers, the College Board has provided an online copy of a teacher’s guide to Art History. This PDF copy contains an introduction of the AP Art History course, techniques and teaching strategies, the format and administration of the AP Art History exam, and a sample of a syllabus for class.