Art, Education, and Community Practice

专业介绍

This interdisciplinary MA program in Art, Education, and Community Practice combines coursework in contemporary artistic practice, radical educational theory, and social activism. In this program students assume major roles in changing the social, cultural, political, and economic landscape through their artistic practice. It prepares artists, educators, designers, community organizers, and other publicly situated activists to work within community-based settings, museums, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), or broader public and civic contexts to initiate social change through the arts. 

Students take foundational courses in the three core program modules: Contemporary Artistic Practice, Educational Theory, and Social Activism. In addition, students can choose elective courses from across the university to customize their degree focus and experiences.

Grounded in the work of critical educational theorists, including Paulo Freire and bell hooks and several artistic activist thinkers, this program supports artists and other publicly situated activists to connect visual strategies and tactics with the needs of a community. Students learn from artists who do socially engaged work, activists who use creative organizing approaches, and educators who use collective methods to engage people in institutions and public spaces. Drawing on community organizing strategies and tactics, students examine how arts/design can open dialogue about a community’s history, culture, and social needs as well as envisioning creative direct action events that involve putting ideas generated in classes into practice. This hands-on approach leads to the capstone project, which provides an opportunity to design and implement a community-based or public art project that allows for social transformation.