Art education is the area of learning that is based upon the visual, tangible arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practical fields such as commercial graphics and home furnishings. Contemporary topics include photography, video, film, design, computer art, etc.
Historically art was taught in Europe via the atelier Method system where artists' took on apprentices who learned their trade in much the same way as any guild such as the Masons (stonemasons or goldsmiths etc.). The first art schools were established in 400 BC Greece as mentioned by Plato. During the Renaissance formal training took place in art studios. Historically, design has had some precedence over the fine arts with schools of design being established all over Europe in the 18th century. Education in art takes place across the life-span. Children, youth, and adults learn about art in community based institutions and organizations such as museums, local arts agencies, recreation centers, places of worship, social service agencies, and prisons among many other possible venues.
Within art school's "visual arts education" encompasses all the visual and performing arts delivered in a standards-based, sequential approach by a qualified instructor as part of the core curriculum. Its core is the study of inseparable artistic and aesthetic experience and learning.
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There are thousands of arts education curricular models or models for arts or arts-based professional development for teachers that schools and community organizations use. Some assert that the core discipline of Western art education is the practice of drawing, a model which has existed since the Renaissance. This is an empirical activity which involves seeing, interpreting and discovering appropriate marks to reproduce an observed phenomena. It can be asserted that other art activities involve imaginative interpretation. Others would assert though, that issue based approaches, such as a visual culture approach to art education, define K-12 art learning today.
Prominent models include:
In most systems, “criticism” is understood to be criteria-based-analysis established on acknowledged elements of composition and principles of design which often vary in their verbal articulation, between the different art discipline forms (applied, fine, performing, & etc.) and their many schools. Other art educational systems include the study of Aesthetics, ontology, semantics, studio praxis (empirical investigation) and phenomenology. There is no set art education curriculum content - it is a process of continual often acrimonious cultural negotiation.
Some studies show that strong art education programs have demonstrated increased student performance in other academic areas, due to art activities' exercising their brains' right hemispheres and delateralizing their thinking.[1] Also see Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Support for art education, however, varies greatly between communities and between schools in various cultures.
Art education is not limited to formal educational institutions. Some professional artists specialize in private or semi-private instruction in their own studios. One form of this teaching style is the Atelier Method as exemplified by Gustave Moreau who taught Picasso, Braque and many other artists. Another is an artist apprenticeship in which the student learns from a professional artist while assisting the artist with their work.
Prince Albert was particularly influential in the creation of schools of Art in the UK. Prince Charles has created The Prince's Drawing School in Hoxton to preserve the teaching of academic drawing. Current UK's curriculum is focus on interdisciplinary approach.
Art education in schools is in The Netherlands strongly improved by the founding of the Dutch Art Teachers Association in 1880 and their Magazine (in 1881). In the seventies of last century were national examinations common in almost all secondary schools. Over the years struggles and problems, discussions about the right way and fights for equal qualification supposedly coloured the history of art education in the Netherlands as in other countries. The details however are of great interest for who will compare these developments with those in his own country. The painter Maarten Krabbé (1908–2005) changed the whole approach towards children drawing and painting. With his books on how to educate children in their free expression (Hidden possibilities | Verborgen Mogelijkheden (8 volumes | delen), uitbeeldingsmogelijkheden voor jonge handen (Sijthoff, Leiden 1961)) he changed the entire educational landscape. He showed how to handle the very delicate talents of children and how to treasure these.
The study of art appreciation in America began with the Picture Study Movement in the late 19th century and began to fade at the end of the 1920s. Picture study was an important part of the art education curriculum. Attention to the aesthetics in classrooms led to public interest in beautifying the school, home, and community, which was known as “Art in Daily Living”. The idea was to bring culture to the child to change the parents.[2] The picture study movement died out at the end of the 1920s as a result of new ideas regarding learning art appreciation through studio work became more popular in the United States.
American educational philosopher and school reformer John Dewey was influential in broadening access to art education in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Since World War II, there has been an increasing in the academic and intellectual focus of artist training through colleges and universities displacing quaintly bohemian, craft-intensive schools like the Art Students League of New York (Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko) or Black Mountain College (Robert Rauschenberg) or the Hans Hofmann School of Art in Greenwich Village. By the 60's, Yale had emerged as the leading American art academy (Chuck Close, Brice Marden, Richard Serra, Jennifer Bartlett and Robert Mangold)[3]
Enrollment in art classes at the high school level peaked in the late 1960s—early 1970s, but with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (which retains the arts as part of the "core curriculum", but does not require reporting or assessment data on this area) there has been decline of arts education in American public schools. The United States Department of Education now awards Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination grants to support organizations with art expertise in their development of artistic curricula. After 2010, an estimate of 25% of the nation's public high schools will end all art programs.
National organizations promoting arts education include Americans for the Arts[4] including Art. Ask For More.,[5] its national arts education public awareness campaign; Association for the Advancement of Arts Education; Arts Education Partnership.;[6]
Professional organizations for art educators include the National Art Education Association,[7] which publishes the practitioner's magazine Art Education and the research journal Studies in Art Education; USSEA (the United States Society for Education through Art) and InSEA (the International Society for Education through Art).[8]
Education through the visual arts is an important and effective influence in allowing students, from an early age, to comprehend and implement the foundational democratic process emphasized within the United States societal structure. [9]
On a fundamental level, democracy requires that individuals within a society believe in a philosophy of equality, and it will not prevail if these ideas are not recognized. In a society established on a democratic process, individuals believe that they can impact the world around them. They believe that a common goal, for the betterment of their existence, can be achieved. And they realize that, while every human being perceives reality in a way that is unique to them, respect of differences is the only way unity can be attained, and that individual characteristics need not be lost in a collective - but, rather, complement and enhance the process of creation of a better civilization.
With the encouragement of art education, students not only learn how to manipulate traditional and modern tools and mediums in the art creation process, but also learn to perceive their individual works of art as representations of themselves, and to openly attempt to understand the emotional representations in the work of fellow artists.
Olivia Gude, the 2009 recipient of the prestigious National Art Education Association’s Lowenfeld Lecture Scholarship, spoke about the numerous ways in which art education is instrumental in forming an informed self- and world-aware citizen. She asserts that:
Art education promotes the very values after which the United States was fashioned, in a way that allows children to understand and practice democracy within their immediate surroundings, as their natural enthusiasm for discovery of self and others prospers.
“Art education and special education can transform the lives of people with special needs.” [11]
Art education was combined with special education even before there were reforms to create special accommodations for children with special needs in typical classrooms. When it comes to art, art therapists are often used to connect with students with special needs. However, some art therapists pull students out of the classroom, causing them to be restricted in their social learning. Because of this, art therapy is reserved for students who do not have much chance for long-term improvements, but rather short-term developmental skills. [12]
Special educator Jean Lokerson and art educator Amelia Jones wrote that “the art room is a place where learning disabilities can turn into learning assets.” Special needs students often come out of their shells and get enthusiastic about creating. Art is also a way that special educators teach their students fundamentals that they may not even realize. [11] Gerber, B. (2011). Art education and special education: A promising partnership. Paper presented at 2011 NAEA national convention, Seattle, WA. Retrieved from
Special educator Wanda Flora tries to use art in her classroom as much as possible, because she believes it is essential that her students engage in hands on activities. “Art encourages participation in all activities”, she said. She explained that “adaptive art teachers” should be in every school to ensure that those students with special needs are encouraged and motivated in the classroom. She uses different art supplies to teach her students writing, but mostly to increase their motor development and sensory skills. [13] There are ongoing studies that continue to prove that art and special education go hand in hand. Testing continues to prove that art in any classroom, but especially special education classrooms causes students to be motivated, enthusiastic, and in some cases, even promote learning in other subject areas. [14]
The domain of art education is broadening to include a wider range of visual and popular culture. Current trends in scholarship employ postmodern and visual culture approaches to art education,[15][16] consider effects of globalism on the production and interpretation of images[17] and focus renewed interest on issues of creativity.[18] Within the NAEA, research and publications are being geared toward issues of learning, community, advocacy, research and knowledge.[19]
Art education programs at major research institutions that are addressing these trends in the United States include Florida State University,[20] Ohio State University,[21] Northern Illinois University,[22] Pennsylvania State University,[23] Indiana University, Bloomington,[24]University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,[25] and Western Carolina University,[26]
Cultural appropriation of crafts within the classroom can be a sensitive subject to teach. In an attempt to teach diversity, educators will make crafts which are representative of a specific culture, or society. Many times, these crafts created in schools are generic and do not celebrate the unique meaning in regards to a specific group of people. If teachers employ crafts to enhance knowledge of a specific holiday, group of people, or a culture, then measures should be taken to ensure that students creating the crafts have extensive knowledge of the origin of the craft as well as any unique meaning behind it. Unfortunately, many teachers do not go to such lengths. Dr. Richard Bay, Art Education Professor of Radford University states “It’s hard to embrace the vast knowledge necessary to learn about a culture. It’s easier for teacher’s to pick up a ‘cookie-cutter’ pattern or lesson plan and say it’s done the job.” [27]
Individuals who employ cultural appropriation have the ability to produce works of considerable aesthetic merit. [28] Using properties of art from different cultures such as decoration or emulation of creative process can foster a greater understanding and appreciation of crafts from different cultures. This technique can be appreciated in the production of African or Native-American mask making projects, where students emulate technique and explore new material use and construction methods which esteem those practices of different cultures.[29]
Cultural appropriation has the potential to bring many new learning experiences into a classroom. When teachers do not take care to respect the context of art work from other cultures, they are telling students that it is ok to steal from another culture. Dr. Bay explains that taking one item from a culture, such as Day of the Dead masks, or African traditional masks and saying that these specific articles encompass the entire beliefs of a culture is an abomination to the true context of the craft. “Within cultures are sub-cultural groups, and within those sub-cultural groups are families, and each family may have a cultural context, each is to be valued.”[30]
If cultural crafts are to be created in the classroom, there is a fine line between the celebration of a culture and abuse. When teaching cross cultural appreciation, be sure to appropriate appropriately.