Art history explores the world and its cultures through artistic productions. It provides insight into the values and concerns of various peoples, the ways in which they interpreted and interacted with their environment, and helps to determine the impacts and outcomes of such outlooks on our future. Through such critical engagement with the past and present, the art history student becomes uniquely situated to help determine their community’s and culture’s identities and its decisions. In this, the Art History and Criticism program participates within Webster University’s mission to create global citizens. The program’s close relationship with the Department’s studio programs lends a strong contemporary focus to the Department’s outlook, and the student’s studies, while a simultaneous focus on the foundations of contemporary culture provide historical groundwork.