Japanese Art Programs?

[jpngrl]

Hi Everyone! I'm a longtime reader of this forum, so I know you all are discerning when it comes to grad programs! I recently graduated a prestigious liberal arts college with a 3.7 GPA and a degree in Art History. I wrote my Senior Project (100 pages!!) on Japanese Art, and and taken Japanese language for a couple of years now. My long term goals are to work in the Antiques/Auction World. specializing in early modern (1600-1860s) Japanese Art. I already have a couple of good internships lined up, but I would really like to know what graduate programs are out there for my specialization. From what this forum has told me, besides academic achievement, acceptance is really a matter of availability in the program of choice (perhaps there's less overall interest in Japanese Art than, let's say, 19th Century French...), and being really specific with what you want your Master's Thesis/Dissertation to look like. However, I would really like to work directly with the objects, so I'm looking at programs like the Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, and the Sothebys & Christie's Programs. Does anyone have insight into these programs, or more general Art History programs offered at Universities? I trust your opinions, guys, so this would be really appreciated!! I don't plan on applying for a couple of years (I want to flush out my resume and gain some work experience), but I'd like to have some options early on.

Thanks!

[Waw]

I have a friend who studies Japanese design at the Royal College of Art and swears that it's wonderful. I know their students have access to the V&A collections, which are awesome.

I'm not sure how relevant that institution is to your specific interests, but it's probably worth a look if you're still investigating different places.

[jpngrl]

I have a friend who studies Japanese design at the Royal College of Art and swears that it's wonderful. I know their students have access to the V&A collections, which are awesome.

I'm not sure how relevant that institution is to your specific interests, but it's probably worth a look if you're still investigating different places.

Thanks! That definitely sounds interesting, and I'll give it a look.

[jpngrl]

I've met with the admissions recruiter for Sotheby's (who was a graduate of Christie's program) and she had nothing but amazing things to say about both programs (of course!). Her interest was photography and she discussed living in London and having some really great opportunities to work with private curators and personal collections (they visited the man's house who created James Bond and got a personal tour of his art collection with his curator and happened to meet him as well accidentally while on tour and completed the tour with him in tow). It's a bit expensive, but you are working with objects for the most part instead of theory (which, personally, I find a fault with some graduate programs) and you will learn proper connoisseurship that graduate students who want to stay in academia never really learn.

Some good Asian art programs I know of are UCLA and Ohio State. It's not my field so I wish I could say more.

Also, Georgetown's MA in Museum Studies also gives you a chance to work with Sotheby's in London while spending 9 months in DC studying a more academic track: http://art.georgetow...museumstudies/. They have a small Asian component.

Wow! Thank You! I really appreciated hearing about the Sothebys & Christie's programs, since all I have are testimonials on their websites. So it's nice to hear about someone who sincerely enjoyed the program and then went on to work at the auction house. I agree that theory sometimes detracts from actually experiencing the object, which is why I like that these programs actually take you into the 'field' to see how art works in the real world. That's also interesting about Georgetown--I hadn't heard about it before, but I'll give it a look. It seems that Asian Art is often just a side component compared to Western or Contemporary, which is a pity...

But thanks again!

[losemygrip]

Ohio State is primarily south Asian. For Japanese you should go to a west coast school (UCLA, Oregon, Washington) or better, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, etc. NYU. West coast will be easier to get into (except UCLA or Berkeley).

Those auction house programs are expensive, and I don't think they offer scholarships. It's an auction house--they want to make money. Doesn't mean they're not good--just expensive.

Going to London might be a good option for someone like you.