Undergraduate Program
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.
In addition to the strengths of the studio and pedagogical components of the art education program, students participate in 100 hours of fieldwork prior to their student teaching semester. The Art Education fieldwork program offers many opportunities for its majors to observe and assist in a variety of art teaching contexts including schools, museums, agencies and organizations.
Beyond observations, assistantships, and internships at different levels in the schools, fieldwork students may also include hours in the following programs: Contemporary Career Connections, an advocacy program presented to high school arts students; Hudson Connections, linked to the Lincoln Center Institute; Learning 2 Look, a collaborative program with the Samuel Dorsky Museum on campus; Arts for Healing, partnering with the Mill Street Loft and the Vassar Brothers Medical Center; and annual outreach events such as Hands on the Hudson, a Volunteer Action Agency's annual masquerade and gala; and Mill Street Loft's Friend of the Arts Annual Award event and program.
Graduate Programs
The Master of Science in Education in Visual Arts Education, designed primarily for currently employed art teachers who are required to complete a Master's degree for professional teaching certification in New York State, focuses on education and pedagogical research in the visual arts resulting in a publishable work of scholarship. The program also serves students who wish to obtain a Master's degree in preparation for doctoral study.
The Master of Arts in Art Studio for Visual Art Educators is designed for those who seek to expand and enrich their background, proficiency and experience in the visual arts. It has an interdisciplinary studio focus culminating in a coherent body or work presented in an exhibition or project. It also serves public school art teachers because it satisfies the education requirement for a Professional Certificate in Visual Arts Education (New York State). Although the MAAS is a discreet program, students sometimes use it as a precursor to the Master of Fine Arts degree.
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.
