I’m Alexandra, an art historian from the United States. Welcome to my website!

I have a B.A. with honors in art history and truly believe that looking at art can enrich everyone’s life as much as it has mine. Studying the art of the past is the closest to time travel I’m likely to get, only it’s much safer. Art also helps me to see the world through other people’s eyes – a type of empathy and understanding we could all use a bit more of in our lives.

How this started

After graduating from college in 2012, I knew I wanted to become a professional art historian, but taking the traditional jobs at a university or museum didn’t feel right for me. So I made my own path, though I didn’t realize it at the time. I founded A Scholarly Skater in 2013, and it was originally just a venue to continue doing art history on my own. More than a decade later, the website hosts over 400 articles and a handful of courses that share my ongoing love and growing knowledge of historical art and architecture.

In addition, I have been a regular contributor to DailyArt Magazine and The Collector. My work has also appeared on Art Herstory, Artips, Citaliarestauro, the Questroyal Fine Art blog, HeadStuff, and Jo’s Art History Podcast, among others.

Why I do this

Along the way, I’ve come to realize how many people feel perplexed by fine art and intimidated in art museums. This makes me sad, and I don’t think it needs to be this way. After all, making and appreciating visual art is an innate part of human nature, and we spend far more time with images today than ever before – we just call it “media” rather than “art”.

I’ve also noticed that the kinds of resources I seek out for other topics tend to be lacking in art history – reliable content designed for intelligent, capable people who happen not to have a background in a particular subject. So, I’ve made it my mission to make historical art and architecture accessible to everyone. I aim to provide clear explanations of art history’s complexities in plain English, without dumbing them down.