Art History, “It’s a trip.”

One of the few elective Advanced Placement classes, AP Art History is a course that focuses on the development of culture through art. Robert Lynde teaches this class with an unforgettable style.

Students who are interested in art or history are encouraged to take art history.  This course earns students five credits per semester of fine art credit, and if students pass the AP test in May they may receive college credit.

Lynde strongly recommends that students like art to take this class. He also mentioned that art history is “the sequel to euro”. AP European History (euro) is the advanced history class taken as sophomores at San Juan.

Cassy O’Brian (12) enjoys that art history can be a more laid back than regular AP classes, which makes it feel like a “more college structured class, so [we] have a little more freedom.”

Usually, the fifth period class begins with an “art start” which is the analysis of a piece of art or two. The course has an emphasis on discussion and memorization of particular art themes.

Since the class is about art, Lynde reports that they take one to three field trips a year typically to museums. This year, they also went to Rome during spring break, “it was absolutely incredible” Lynde.

“Lynde keeps it real and interesting,” said Ryan Kerkow (12), despite the fact that most of the class is spent looking at art on powerpoints in the dark.

There is an AP test in May, it has a 100 question multiple choice test and ten short answer essays. These essays are about a paragraph each, but there is no document based question or free response essay.

All in all, art history is described as “fun to learn about” and “an excellent, joyous ride of extravagance, yo” by Morgan Mckeague and Ryan Kerkow, 12.