Something extraordinary happens when the lights go down in art history professor Kristen Van Ausdall's "Survey of Art" course.

"At first, students can be a little uncomfortable," says the Renaissance art specialist with a laugh. "They're not used to being in a classroom with the lights dimmed." But then the slides go up - glowing photos of masterpieces by Fra Angelico and Henri Matisse - and the students start learning how to look at art. They become so enthralled, Van Ausdall says, that, "after a few classes, they ask me if we can turn the lights down lower so they can see the pictures better. Then I know they've got it; I know they're really looking."

Students who learn to see art begin to detect its influence everywhere, Van Ausdall says - in film, in advertising, even in product design.

"We're such a media-blasted culture, [students are] used to looking at media imagery and taking it for granted," she says. "Not everyone always thinks of visual imagery as sparking intellectual discourse. But it certainly can."

Van Ausdall's academic interests outside of the classroom include research in the areas of sacred art, women and art, and Renaissance classicism.