Program Overview

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Program Overview

The Art, Education, and Community Practice (MA) program is an interdisciplinary program that combines coursework in contemporary artistic practice, radical educational theory, and social activism. This program 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.

Program Description

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. The program is grounded in the work of critical educational theorists, including Paulo Freire and bell hooks, and several artistic activist thinkers.

Career Opportunities

Graduates of the program work outside of and in collaboration with traditional avenues (museums, gallery arenas, classrooms, non-government organizations (NGOs). Graduates also serve as artists and organizers working as educators; curators; and artists in museums, community-based organizations, and NGOs or in broader public and civic contexts to initiate social change through the arts.

Accreditation

NYU is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

Admissions

This program is not accepting applications. Prospective students may consider the Teaching Art, All Grades (MA) program.

Program Requirements

The program requires the completion of 30 credits, comprised of the following:

• Major Requirements:
  • ARTCR-GE 2459: Art & Ideas: What is Social Practice Art? (3 credits)
  • ARTED-GE 2070: Critical Pedagogy, Artists, and the Public Sphere (3 credits)
  • ART-GE 2102: Artistic Activism as Radical Research (2 credits)
  • ARTCR-GE 2461: Art & Ideas: Art as a Practice of Freedom (3 credits)
  • ARTED-GE 2301: Final Project in Art Education (1 credit)
• Guided Electives: 18 credits
  • Students take one required foundational course in each program module and then choose electives from across the university each module to customize their degree focus and experiences.
  • Module 1: Socially Engaged Art
  • Module 2: Critical Pedagogy
  • Module 3: Social Activism
• Total Credits: 30

Sample Plan of Study

The sample plan of study is as follows:

• 1st Semester/Term:
  • ARTCR-GE 2459: Art & Ideas: What is Social Practice Art? (3 credits)
  • ARTED-GE 2070: Critical Pedagogy, Artists, and the Public Sphere (3 credits)
  • Guided Electives (6 credits)
  • Total Credits: 12
• 2nd Semester/Term:
  • ARTCR-GE 2461: Art & Ideas: Art as a Practice of Freedom (3 credits)
  • ART-GE 2102: Artistic Activism as Radical Research (2 credits)
  • Guided Electives (8 credits)
  • Total Credits: 13
• 3rd Semester/Term:
  • ARTED-GE 2301: Final Project in Art Education (1 credit)
  • Guided Electives (4 credits)
  • Total Credits: 5
• Total Credits: 30

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the program, graduates will:

1. Examine the relationship between art and politics across time and space with a focus on social change.
2. Amplify the voices, perspectives, and work of marginalized communities and regions in the arena of artistic activism through making invisible histories and socio-political issues visible.
3. Design, implement, and evaluate an art intervention that creates awareness of existing socio-political issues or organize a direct action event to create social change in our communities and society.
4. Build clear, innovative, and coherent art-based educational experiences that are based on historical and socio-political context, multidisciplinary research, dialogic, experiential, and grounded in an understanding of how power informs our ways of knowing and being in communities, institutions, and public spaces in order to initiate social change.
5. Generate new knowledge about how art activism adds value to the processes of democracy, social justice, and representation.

Policies

• NYU Policies: University-wide policies can be found on the New York University Policy pages.
• Steinhardt Academic Policies: Additional academic policies can be found on the Steinhardt academic policies page.