Heather Gray in front of a fountain
Heather Gray
Art History Department Chair and Instructor
Art History

Thank you for coming to my page!

For Spring 2026

If you are enrolled in my AH 10: Art Appreciation/Introduction to Visual Culture, AH 11: Ancient Art, or AH 13H: Honors Renaissance Art class(es), you will be attending class on the Aptos campus in VAPA 1001.

If you are enrolled in my AH 14: Modern Art class, you will be participating in the class using Canvas (the online educational platform used at Cabrillo.) This class is asynchronous, meaning that you will NOT be logging in at specific times to interact in real-time with me or your classmates via Zoom or other online conference tools. Instead, you will be participating in the class by watching pre-recorded lectures, reading provided articles, contributing to class discussion boards, taking a midterm and a final exam, and preparing for the exams with homework assignments.

If you are registered for one or more of my classes will be able to find your class(es) on your Canvas dashboard by the first day of the semester (Spring 2026: January 26th). To access the course content, go to Cabrillo's Canvas page (locate at the top of Cabrillo's homepage). Log in using your Cabrillo Student ID and password.

If you are new to Canvas, I suggest you watch this video introduction to Canvas.

If you have any additional questions about how I will be conducting my classes this semester please message me.

And if you would like to know a little about me, here is a short bio:

I was a first generation college student. I went to Cabrillo and then transferred to UC Santa Cruz as a Financial Aid student where I received my Bachelor's Degree in the History of Art and Visual Culture and studied abroad in Rome, Italy. I went on to obtained my Master's Degree in Art History and Visual Culture from San Jose State University.

I love Art History because I am the type of person who wants to know everything about everything and Art History allows me to do that. No matter your interests, Art History has you covered! You can look at art (or the term I like to use, visual culture) from any angle: Biology, Anthropology, Mathematics, Chemistry, Businesses, Health Sciences, Agriculture, and more. Yes! All of it!

While my specialty is in Renaissance architecture and urban planning of Rome, I have a wide variety of interests across time, media, and geography. I am particularly obsessed with hydraulic infrastructure like aqueducts and FOUNTAINS! However, my current work is on the historiography of Art History, its white-centric foundations and its contribution to the centering of whiteness in the mythology of "essentialism." It is with this interest and research that I weave the topic of whiteness, as well as heteronormativity, misogyny, and colonialism, throughout my courses, pointing out and analyzing the ways in which visual culture upholds or denies the existing hegemonic narrative of the time/location. I do this with the goal of reshaping Art History to be something that truly reflects the diversity of human experiences that are expressed throughout the totality of visual culture made across time and space.

But, as I am only one person, with one kind of lived experience, I can only do this with you: your voice, your perspective, your experience. So, I invite you to join me in creating an Art History that reflects humanity as a whole. Your perspective, your voice matters. You are needed.