Art Education: What's New

Research Grants in the Arts Guidelines Now Available

The National Endowment for the Arts’ Research Grants in the Arts  offsite link program (formerly named Research: Art Works) supports projects that seek to investigate the value and impact of the arts for individuals and communities. Proposed projects may use quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches. Application guidelines for the present round of funding are now available on the Arts Endowment website offsite link. The upcoming deadline is October 3, 2019.

The New Goal in Art Education

The shift from a backseat, to front and center, focus in art education has meant some new ideas in how art should be instructed, including:

• Art teachers are now required to create lesson plans with graduated objectives and test outcomes.
• Art should be taught in a sequence, as we do with math and history.
• The focus on instruction is twofold: learning skills, such as painting, and historical understanding, such as the impact of art during the Renaissance period.
• Teachers need to teach to objectives and specific skills, and students need to be held accountable for reaching them.
• Assessments should be administered to determine a student's understanding of concepts taught.
• Professional development for art educators should have the same focus as core instructors.

Can you see how art is now being treated as a core subject instead of bonus time for teachers and students? All of these ideas show great strides being made in art education and deserve a closer look as to how they play out in the classroom

The National Art Education Foundation (NAEF) is accepting applications for its annual grants program. As an independent, philanthropic organization, the National Art Education Foundation (NAEF) supports a wide variety of professional activities, including support for visual art educators to participate in professional development programs; the promotion of visual arts education as an integral part of the curriculum; the exploration of new models of visual arts instruction in public and private K-16 schools; the promotion of the teaching of art through activities related to the instructional process, curriculum, student learning, student assessment, management, or discipline; the purchase of equipment and/or instructional resources; and conducting research in visual arts education. NAEF has supported 330 projects since its inception in 1985. NAEF is a sister organization to the National Art Education Association (NAEA) and provides support for a variety of visual arts education programs for the Association and its members.