Art Education

Become a licensed art educator

A student majoring in Art Education learns the abilities and techniques to help others develop their artistic talents. As an art educator you provide instruction in the visual arts by exploring art making, art history, art criticism and aesthetics, and the joyful creative expression of art. You will be eligible to be licensed to teach art education from elementary to secondary students.

Alverno maintains ties with numerous agencies, organizations and schools to provide a wide range of field experiences and opportunities for hands on participation in a variety of community workshops. These field experiences and workshops connect you with art expression as part of a community while expanding your learning in the areas of culture, collaborative art making, educational facilitation, event planning, context based research and the implementation of art programs to diverse communities.

Alverno offers a K-12 art education major (PK-12 Art licensure) that prepares students to be leaders in the Art Education field. The curriculum integrates studio skills with critical theory, learning theory and pedagogical practice. Students learn the practices of developing a constructivist learning environment, stimulating creative problem solving and the exploration of the meaning and possibilities of art and culture. The Alverno art education program produces reflective art practitioners that go on to encourage their students to create artworks in response to life experiences.

You’ll find art majors within a liberal arts college context: Art Education, Art Education/Art Therapy, Art Therapy, and Studio Art. All share foundations in art making, design, and the history of art because your artistic ability is at the core of any arts career. Each major emphasizes the use of art in different ways.

• Conceptualization: Integrating art content knowledge with education and art frameworks and a broadly-based understanding of the liberal arts in order to plan and implement instruction.
• Diagnosis: Relates observed behavior to relevant frameworks in order to determine and implement learning prescriptions for the art setting.
• Coordination: Manages resources effectively to support learning goals
• Communication: Uses verbal, nonverbal, and media modes to establish the environment of the art classroom and to structure and reinforce learning
• Integrative Interaction: Acting with professional value as a situational decision-maker, adapting to the changing needs in the environment in order to draw out students as learners.