Art & Art Education

ON VIEW

Me Rn AAF

This exhibition presents recent mixed media explorations of self-portraiture by artist and doctoral student Krista Biedenbach. These works capture the ephemeral qualities of the artist’s momentary cognitive state as she strives to intentionally disrupt her intuitive mark-making sensibilities in order to re-present existence in ever-changing ways.

November 11 – December 5, 2024

ON VIEW

ART & ART EDUCATION FACULTY BIENNIAL

Members of the Art & Art Education Program’s faculty exhibit their most current artwork, sharing the creative practice at the heart of their artistic inquiry. Meet our faculty through their art.

October 7 - December 5, 2024

Design Your Future

Whether you’re an experienced art educator or just starting your teaching career, the Art & Art Education program at TC will help you envision your future and achieve your goals.

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Be an Artist

At TC, becoming an educator, researcher, or leader doesn’t mean putting your studio practice on hold. Continue or renew your visual arts practice in our studio community while growing as a maker, critic, educator, curriculum designer, curator, researcher, and leader.

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Collaborate with Us

Work with our distinguished faculty and supportive student community to teach, lead, and conduct research and creative projects in schools, colleges, museums, galleries, community centers, and alternative sites all around the world.

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Welcome to the Program in Art and Art Education

The Art and Art Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University is dedicated to preparing art educators, teacher educators, and leaders in visual arts education. Our curriculum is designed so you can teach and lead programs wherever you go, whether that’s in a P-12 classroom, a museum, a community art center, a university, or beyond. Our dedicated studios—from drawing and painting to sculpture and new media and digital technologies—allow you to actively create art while you continue your studies. In fact, all of our degree tracks require studio work. We believe it’s in the studio that you develop new ways seeing, experiencing, and responding to the world allowing you to expand your expertise in teaching others to do so as well. This focus on the studio as teaching laboratory distinguishes our program within Teachers College Columbia University, one of the leading graduate schools of education in the world.

Degree Tracks

Master of Arts

Initial Cert: Visual Arts Pre-K-12

Master of Arts

Non-Certification

Master of Arts

Studio Practice for Art Educators (Hybrid)

Master of Education

Doctor of Education

Doctor of Education in College Teaching

of Visual Art

Advanced Certificate in Creative Technologies

Choose Your Concentration

Students in the M.A., Ed.M., Ed.D. and Ed.D.C.T. may opt to complete an elective area of focus as part of their degree.

Students who wish to work with education initiatives in museums in the US and around the world may complete the Museum Education area of focus. This area of focus explores the art museum as a civic and educational institution, examines the role of museum education departments, and introduces students to innovative museum education programs and pedagogical practices.

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Students who seek to sharpen their expertise designing pedagogically sound, imaginative studio art learning opportunities may complete the Art Pedagogy area of focus. This concentration equips students to teach people of different ages in different learning contexts—schools, museums, community centers, and beyond. It combines courses in the artistic development of children and adolescents, curriculum development, studio-based practice with applications for teaching, cultural diversity in art education, and special education, along with an optional art teaching internship.

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This concentration explores and strengthens the relationship between art, technology, and education. The goal is to prepare you to be a leader in educational ecologies that interweave digital tools and creative materials in multi- and cross-disciplinary, collaborative, and playful pedagogies.

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Students whose aim is to be an art educator in community settings may take courses in the Community Engagement area of focus as part of their degree.

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Students who are particularly interested in conducting rigorous, high-level scholarly research in art education may complete the Academic Research in Art Education concentration.

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