NEW YORK, NY.- Many prospective students are eager to start their first steps on their way to successful career getting a decent and qualitative education. However, quite often they have to choose between subjects, which they are passionate about and subjects, which are likely to pay off well. Obviously, no one wants to get a diploma, which has no practical application in real life, and have a huge debt to pay for it. Unfortunately, such situation on the job market makes talented and creative prodigies opt for certain and infallible positions.

The decision whether to risk and follow the passion, pursuing success in art, is tough and should be taken deliberately. However, there are several solid points to convince you that art history is a subject worth your attention even if your passions and career aspirations are far from any kind of art:

1. Art history has more to offer than you probably think
As it turns out, many people simply have a wrong impression about what art history is about. Art history is not just about a bunch of fanatic painters struggling to make ends meet. From ancient cave paintings, pottery, ceramics, armor and weaponry design, to the newest media masterpieces, contemporary art, graffiti, etc. In a nutshell, art history has something to offer to any person, with any kind of interests.

2. There’s a story behind every piece of art
Every art object would tell an enthralling story, if only one could speak. Beside the stories of how art is created, many pieces of art were repeatedly stolen and returned, and thus have witnessed adventures worth telling about. Moreover, there are legendary masterpieces which are thought to be lost, yet many people are desperately trying to find them.

3. Art history contributes to your erudition and skills
It is a widely-known fact that any knew learning contributes to developing new neural connections, assembling strong neural networks, which results in increasing plasticity of the brain. What does it mean and how it affects your everyday life? It means, that any learning makes further process of studying easier, not only because you won’t have to start from scratch when you are trying to grasp something new, but because the brain will literally be stronger and able to cope with greater loads of information. Thus, picking up some curious facts about art will not only help you deal with your art history essay, but also increase your overall erudition and ability to learn.

4. Art history reflects what is important
Art history is inseparably connected with overall history of the countries and the world. Not only that it represents the needs and possibilities of every epoch, in most cases, it also reflects the most significant historical episodes and the way they were recognized. Obviously, learning history without getting an insight on what was in the minds of cultural elite of the time would be incomplete and perverted. Many artists were creating their artwork as a response to important events of their time, at the same time their art influenced the minds of their fellow people, therefore while the artists were inspired by events, they inspired even more events to happen.

5. Visual representation and interpretation are essential skills
Learning art in retrospective helps shaping an aesthetic taste, which is greatly desirable these days. The amounts of visual data are growing, and producing a qualitative visual content is a needful skill, and quite a well-paid one.

Learning art history in fact involves touching upon numerous other subjects, such as economy, philosophy, sociology, anthropology etc., and what is more, it enhances critical thinking. Obviously, even the very fact of observing art objects, when you simply decide whether you like a particular piece of art or not, is contributing to critical thinking skills. However, when you dig a little deeper, imagine the time and environment when the observed piece of art was created, and try to imagine what the artist was trying to express, it brings your critical skills into a new level. Having strong opinions and beliefs about certain artists and their works will soon get you into sharing those opinions and substantiating them with strong evidence and facts. Consequently, discussing art will make you a good listener and a confident speaker.

But the most important part about exploring art history is that you are going to see many more aspects of life from a different perspective as well. Once you expand your understanding of art and what is behind it, you will be able to see beauty where you had never seen it before and have a bigger appreciation of what you considered ordinary.