Art Education students take a variety of courses throughout the four-year program to build a strong foundation in studio art and art history, along with the theory and practices of teaching visual art.
The Art Education teacher licensure program is nationally accredited and state certified to prepare students for careers as art teachers in K–12 schools and as art educators in adjacent fields.
Building a Collaborative Art Education Community
In the art education program, we strive to cultivate a creative community among students that extends to local classrooms as well as state, national, and global professional organizations. Art education students exhibit their artworks, participate in field experience, and practice their skills during a semester of student teaching. Many of our majors graduate with a dual degree in art education and studio art. Through this robust networking and the rigorous academic focus, students from our art education program are consistently offered jobs in the field at or before graduation. Art education majors are artists, researchers, and teachers engaged in collaboration and critical thinking toward a fulfilling career and lifelong engagement with the arts.
It's Personal
Our multidisciplinary program includes studio, general education courses, field experiences, and content specialty courses. To help students maneuver successfully through the program we offer a supportive advising environment with a highly-qualified art education faculty advisor.
SA/VS offers personalized instruction (average class size is 12 students) in a hybrid learning environment. Our faculty have 153 combined years of teaching experience and remain engaged in creative research and artistic endeavors.
Beyond the Classroom
Opportunities are available for studying abroad in studio and art history courses. Student teaching abroad is also an option – recent graduates have taught in Great Britain and Italy.
Art Education students are members of the Art Education Student Chapter at UK, affiliated with the Kentucky Art Education Association and the National Art Education Association. This group engages in service-learning, attends community arts events, and attends conferences, all contributing to student leadership and collaboration.
Official Degree Requirements & Course Information
Always be sure to check the official full major requirements with course numbers on the UK Registrar Catalog. The information presented here is a simplified overview.
Premajor Requirements
Each first-year student in the Foundation Program must participate in an annual exhibition to occur late each spring semester. Students will submit one work of their own selection from their first year’s work for the exhibition, present it professionally, and provide an accompanying artist’s statement. Participation in this exhibition is required and is tracked in A-S 001, Foundation Exhibition.
Continuous Assessment in the Art Education Program
Students’ progress through the Art Education Program is continuously monitored, assessed, and reviewed. In addition to regular evaluation in conjunction with their program course work and field placements, students will be assessed three times in their Art Education Program:
- Entry into the Teacher Education Program (TEP): Students must apply to the TEP program and demonstrate that they have earned at least 60 credit hours and meet the criteria put forth by the College of Education by filling out the College of Education TEP application form. Upon meeting those criteria, applicants then have a portfolio review and interview with Art Education faculty to determine entry into the program.
- Mid-Level review: No later than the semester prior to student teaching, students will demonstrate that they meet the criteria put forth by the Art Education faculty by submitting the materials required for review by the Art Education faculty.
- Final assessment upon completion of student teaching: The final assessment is made by the two cooperating public school teachers who supervise the student, and by the observation assessments of the University student teaching supervisor.
- Students must have earned an overall minimum GPA of 2.5 to progress from premajor to major status.
State Mandated Testing and the Kentucky Teacher Internship
Successful completion of the examinations required by the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board is a precondition for the granting of a teaching license (certificate). See www.kyepsb.net/ for the current list of PRAXIS examination requirements for P-12 Art certification.
Upon being recommended for a Kentucky Teaching License (certificate), a candidate will be issued a Kentucky Letter of Eligibility for the Kentucky Teacher Internship Program. Upon employment in a Kentucky P-12 school, the candidate will receive a one-year license to practice as a fully qualified intern Art teacher. After successfully completing the internship year, the candidate will be eligible for a regular Kentucky Professional Teaching License (certificate).
Information concerning licensure in other states is available from the office of Academic Services and Teacher Certification in the College of Education.