This website represents a major outcome of a multi-year project: “Great Books, Great Art: Integrating Art History into the Liberal Arts Core Curriculum,” undertaken by the faculty, staff and students of Shimer College, with generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the assistance of leading scholars in the history of the visual arts.

Our main purpose is to bring great works of art into the context of a broader liberal arts curriculum, both in our own Great Books seminar classes and for teachers at all levels elsewhere. We invite users to explore the site either by way of its integration into the core curriculum of Shimer Courses; by a Keyword Search for a particular artist, artwork, author or other specific interest; or by viewing the site's contents through the Browse Topic pages at right.

Please also consider joining our Listserv/Newsletter mailing list to get regular updates on new content, and to offer suggestions that will help us make the site both more usable and useful.