Art education is a major within the Art Department in the School of Fine and Performing Arts. Students who major in Art Education must first be admitted to the Art Department, and Art Education students make up over one-third of the Art Department student body. Art Education students take studio courses with art studio majors in the areas of drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, graphic design, sculpture, ceramics and metal.

The undergraduate Art Education program is designed to prepare art teachers who:

	Are skilled and insightful artists, critics and historians.
	Understand the diverse ways in which people create and respond to art.
	Understand the worlds, interests, and potential of young people in elementary and secondary schools.
	Can organize their knowledge about art into curricular units and lessons.
	Have a repertoire of instructional and evaluative skills to facilitate the learning process.
	Are sensitive to the school's purposes, organization and relationship to the community.
	Have a commitment to ongoing professional development.

Graduate Program

For over 50 years, the Art Education Program at SUNY New Paltz has prepared artist/teachers for work with young people in schools and alternative education settings. The Graduate Programs in Visual Arts Education challenge beginning and experienced art teachers to look reflectively and critically at their own artistry and teaching practice. Through course work in studio art, art criticism and history, and art education, students refine their own studio practice, their understanding of contemporary and historical art ideas and issues, and their insights about effective art pedagogy. The Art Education Program encourages students to develop classroom practices that reflect meaningful, authentic, and current art content.

The program encourages active participation in professional art education organizations, national conferences and workshops. As project and course work is completed, and new research is developed, students are afforded opportunities to present their findings in student publications and at national conferences and workshops. Students have often undertaken leadership roles in the organization of these events. This level of professional engagement establishes both a feeling of authenticity and a sense of professional engagement and status in the art education field. In this way, the Art Education Program fosters and develops a group of peers with whom it continues to work. Many successful graduates maintain interaction with the program - as invited speakers in classes and as supervising teachers for our undergraduate field work in the schools.