The MSAE at MassArt is a 36-credit program intended for students who hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution and have a strong studio art background.  The program is designed to challenge students interested in exploring questions in the broad field of visual arts education.  Students are challenged to combine further work in studio, aesthetics and art history with teaching.

The MSAE directs art educators toward an understanding of current pedagogical theory, a thoughtful analysis of their own aesthetic sensibility, and more depth in research, new media and studio practices.  All MSAE candidates take a sequence of art education courses in developmental theory, history, curriculum, aesthetics and new media to develop a common core of concepts, language and understanding. 

Completion of the MSAE program requires a high degree of commitment.  The program rewards the student with a broad knowledge of the field of art education and in-depth understanding of a topic impacting art education.  In pursuing individual studio/research interests, students also acquire a refined ability to express their ideas visually and verbally at a professional academic level, and their completed exhibitions/theses contribute significant insights and information to the profession. 

A Two-Year, Three-Summer MSAE Program
The MSAE program begins with a summer intensive studio experience coupled with an overview of research practices that facilitates developing a cohort and establishes the program’s emphases. Studio intensive courses occur during the summer when teachers can devote more focused time and effort. During the school year, coursework shifts to the pedagogical offerings, thesis advising, and cohort development in the form of the Studio and Writers Forums. The middle summer offers a travel option developed with an international partner for a studio experience coupled with art education exchanges. In the final summer, students refine their studio explorations and prepare for the final thesis exhibitions that take the form of a college-gallery-wide event.

Understanding that this rigorous, intensive program may not be suitable for all candidates, a three-year, three-summer option has also been developed that simply extends the core courses and requires fewer studio courses during one summer.

A Travel Option
Educational communities in the United States are increasingly diverse in cultures, ethnicities, first languages and national origins. This diversity and multiculturalism in teachers’ students demand sophistication in teaching. In many ways the contemporary art educator must understand ethnographic methods to understand diverse cultures. One route to acquiring such skills and understandings occurs by having studio experiences in a different culture along with artists from that culture. The primary goal of this travel option is to prepare MSAE students for teaching about other cultures and with other cultures. This is accomplished by bringing a high-degree of critical inquiry to cultural assumptions and perspectives of other cultures. This includes forging humanistic and compassionate cross-cultural relationships with educators abroad while involved in studio experiences.

Redefining the Thesis as Studio- and Research-Based
The MSAE program reflects contemporary and emerging understanding of the art practice as research. This exciting development in research argues that art education can draw its strength from its core: the studio experience. Claiming the art practice as a site for knowledge construction provides the art educator the opportunity to re-engage in studio experiences while simultaneously developing new and deeper understandings into the teaching and learning of art. This does not relinquish the art practice from exegesis, rather demands a rigorous and sophisticated understanding that can withstand scrutiny within the academy. The Thesis Projects course includes a formal presentation of the thesis to a review board of fulltime Art Education faculty and invited guest experts.

Program-long Academic and Thesis advising
The MSAE program makes the academic and thesis advising an integral, systematic, and organized part of the students’ experiences. Since the thesis is the central component to the program that weaves throughout the courses, advising in the program begins during the first intensive summer and continues with the same advisor throughout the program.

Licensure
The Initial License is required for acceptance into the MSAE, with the exception of applicants who are not interested in licensure to teach in the public schools K-12. A Master’s degree is part of the second step in the Massachusetts licensure process. Along with three years of teaching experience with the Initial License, it can lead to the Professional License. The Professional License is required five years after beginning to teach with the Initial License. Art education professionals who do not require licensure, such as those who work in museum or community settings, are welcome to apply to the MSAE without an Initial License.

Course List

• Studio Investigations
• Research Investigations
• History of Goals & Methods of Art Education
• Art & Developmental Theory
• Problems in Aesthetics
• Curriculum & Issues in Visual Arts Education
• Teaching in New Media
• Contemporary Art History
• Graduate Studio Electives
• Studio and Writers Forums
• Thesis Project