The Oral History Center (OHC) is hosting a two-week Summer Institute in Art History program from June 8 – 21, 2026. The program is for scholars and professionals studying art history and visual culture to foster an in-depth understanding of oral history. This program will be held on UC Berkeley’s campus and participants must have the ability to commit to a two-week stay. The OHC is accepting applications from February 1 through March 1, 2026.
Applications are open to professors, curators, post-doctoral researchers and fellows, museum professionals, and artists at any stage of their career. Applicants must not be currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program. They must work in art history or a related field and have an interest in integrating oral history into their work, whether it be conducting interviews, incorporating archival interviews into an exhibition, or teaching students how to design and implement oral history projects.
The goal of the program is to provide scholars with current best practices in oral history methodology and theory; practical skills to conduct their own oral history projects; opportunities to practice interviewing; insights from art historians and visual arts professionals who use oral history in multiple capacities; and dedicated time and space to reflect on the role of oral history in their work.
The Summer Institute in Art History features a mix of instruction from seasoned OHC staff, professors and curators who specialize in art history and visual culture, and guest speakers, including Bridget Cooks, Elaine Yau, Shannon Jackson, Anneka Lenssen, and more. Instruction will be blended with small workshop groups, one-on-one advising, individual work time, and field visits around the San Francisco Bay Area.
The program will be at no cost to selected fellows, as this Summer Institute was made possible with support from Getty through its Connecting Art Histories initiative. There is a $5 application fee. We will accept up to 20 fellows currently residing in the United States at the time of the Summer Institute.
The OHC was founded in 1953 and one of the oldest oral history programs in the United States. Over the decades, we have conducted several thousands of interviews on myriad topics, including on the lived experiences and history of artists, art institutions, and philanthropy. Today, the OHC produces carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed oral histories and interpretive materials for the widest possible use, resulting in an archive of over 25,000 hours of interview recordings and transcripts. The vast majority of these interview transcripts have been digitized and made available online for public access via the UC Berkeley Library Digital Collections. The OHC has undertaken numerous projects on art museums, foundations, and visual artists, including with the J. Paul Getty Trust, the Getty Research Institute, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Asian Art Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, and the San Francisco Opera.
