“The best undergraduate department of art history in the country”: This is how New York Times art critic John Russell once described the Art History program at NYU. The Department was established to provide a rigorous and wide-ranging education in the many facets of the history and theory of art, a mission that its faculty continues to enthusiastically embrace. Students become familiar with global art from antiquity to the present. The Department offers courses in Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Modern, Contemporary, East Asian, South Asian, Islamic, Latin American, African, Oceanic, Pre-Columbian, and Native American art, treating not only painting, sculpture, architecture, and photography but also graphic media, manuscript illumination, the decorative arts, and aspects of urban design. The Department offers two undergraduate majors and minors, one in Art History and another in Urban Design and Architecture Studies (URDS).