Program Overview
We have a proud history of teaching future art teachers, and many of our students have gone on to successfully complete the California Credentialling qualifications after studying with us on the BA in Art Plan I Visual Studies. Hundreds of teachers across Southern California are alumni of our program, contributing to their communities in a myriad of ways.
The Visual Studies concentration of the new BA in Art, the new BFA in Art, and the BA in ART Plan I degrees offers a dynamic integration of theory and practice that prepares students to engage with art in the public sphere as well as prepare to become art teachers in K-12 schools.
This contemporary and multidisciplinary course of study empowers students to investigate interconnections between art, pedagogy, community engagement and social justice. This plan prepares students for careers in art education, arts administration, community arts, and socially-engaged practices. It prepares students for further study in fields including Art Education, Fine Art, Social Practice, Art Therapy, and Arts Leadership.
Courses in the major emphasize active learning, engaged curiosity, collaboration, and creative practice. Students gain valuable experience in the field by participating in internships in the local region, including several internships opportunities on campus.
Course Requirements: BA in Art (concentration in Art Education)
Learning Outcomes
Students will evolve their identities as artists, educators, and leaders. Students will be able to think critically about and act on issues related to art production, art education, and social justice, including: diversity, equity, inclusivity, and access.
Students will be able to think critically about and grow understandings of relationships between theory, context, and practice in art education, socially-engaged art, arts leadership and activism.
Students will be able to investigate and interpret a diversity of forms and approaches in art, and will be able to apply understandings in the planning and creation of new art pedagogy, art practice, and community projects.
Students will be able to share, discuss, and reflect on their own and others’ art and ideas, and learn how to nurture their own and others’ development through reflective practices.
Students will be able to apply theoretical and ethical ideas about art, learning, and issues in society by creating and implementing school curricula, classroom techniques, service-learning and community arts projects.
Students will develop an understanding of the way that meaning and the process of meaning-making are embedded and embodied in context (social, cultural, historical).
Students will learn to respond with empathy and an asset-based mindset to the unique benefits, needs, and characteristics of a diversity of individuals and communities.
Students will be able to formulate their own ideas about ways that art, teaching, and social issues can interact through research, art making, and internships.
