Art & Visual Culture Education

Students at the UA School of Art have exceptional resources available to them, besides mentorship by an international faculty with strong reputations in research and practice. The University houses several museums, including The University of Arizona Museum of Art, the Center for Creative Photography (one of the world’s leading photography archives and exhibition centers), the Arizona State Museum, and the Joseph Gross, Lionel Rombach, and Student Union art galleries. The University Library has an extensive collection of books, periodicals, and media and is ranked seventeenth among research libraries in the United States. In addition, the School and Division facilitate internships, work-study, and other learning opportunities with various organizations across the city, including the Center for Creative Photography, the University of Arizona Museum of Art, the School of Art galleries, Tucson Museum of Art, and many community organizations.

Excellent multimedia facilities are available to students, including OSCR labs located at various locations around campus. The School of Art’s Visual Resource Center (slides and digital images) contains over 200,000 slides and a large digital image bank. Take virtual tours of the campus, artworks on campus, and Tucson. The city is rich in arts and cultural resources and was recently named as 15th in the nation for its public arts.

If you would like to visit our campus and our faculty, please contact us.

Visit the Resources & Facilities page to learn more.

The Art & Visual Culture Education Division engages in a number of professional activities and outreach programs:

WILDCAT ART

Wildcat Art is an eight week long Saturday art program offered every spring by the University of Arizona School of Art. Wildcat Art classes are structured to encourage students to explore ideas and issues through contemporary and traditional art media & practices. Experiences are designed specifically for students at each age/grade level from kindergarten through adolescence (K-12). Classes are taught by advanced and graduate art and visual culture education students, in collaboration with art and visual culture education faculty.

Our curriculum has included experiences in movement and contemporary dance, narrative and storytelling, calligraphic printing, cyanotype photography, post-modern architecture, clay, stop-frame animation, and other art-making processes. A recent theme explored was Identity: Your Interconnected Worlds, which included personal geographies, diversity, our desert environment and sustainability, community, collaboration, and identity. Another recent theme was Sustainable Art Practice. Each year we visit on-campus museums as part of the program and invite local artists to talk to participating children and youth.

Wildcat Art is a non-profit program that serves the Tucson community while providing hands-on teaching experience for advanced undergraduate and graduate art and visual culture education students.

Our annual exhibition is held at the University of Arizona Union Gallery for students and their families. While serving the larger Tucson community, this program also serves as a lab school for students in the program, an exciting opportunity for teachers-in-training.

Current information about the program can be found at http://wildcatart.class.arizona.edu/.

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

The School of Art and its Division of Art and Visual Culture Education is very much a part of the heart of the greater Tucson community. Through internships, volunteer opportunities, work-study programs, learning-centered collaborations, and placement of our graduates, we have built strong relationships with community organizations and institutions within and outside of the University of Arizona. Some of the organizations with whom our students have had the opportunity to learn and work with in recent years include:

• The University of Arizona Museum of Art
• The Tucson Museum of Art
• The Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art
• The Mini Time Machine: Tucson Museum of Miniatures
• The Center for Creative Photography
• The University of Arizona Union Galleries
• Conrad Wilde Gallery
• Barbara Grygutis Sculpture LLC
• The Gloo Factory
• The Boys and Girls Club of Tucson
• BICAS (Bicycle Inter-Community Action and Salvage)
• ArtWorks
• La Pilita Musuem
• The Smithsonian Institution

PLACEMENTS

Graduates of Art and Visual Culture Education at the University of Arizona are well placed in the world of Art and Visual Culture Education. A few of the places our graduates are working include:

• Many schools across Arizona, the southwest and the nation
• University of Dayton OH
• Antioch College, Seattle WA
• Cochise College, Cochise Count, AZ
• Pima Community College, Tucson AZ
• Cloud State University, MN
• Bowling Green State University, OH
• The Pablove Foundation, Los Angeles CA
• The Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco CA
• Apple Computers
• Perpich Center for Arts Education, Minneapolis MN
• University of Advancing Technology, Phoenix AZ
• Rosseter House, Phoenix AZ

ALUMNI

We want to keep in touch! If you are an AVCE alumnus, please be part of our network; we’d love to know where you are and what you are doing.

Please join us on Facebook
Email us at: avcealum@gmail.com
or drop us a postcard at:

The Division of Art and Visual Culture Education,
School of Art, University of Arizona
P.O. Box 210002
Tucson, AZ 85721-0007

All students, whether post-baccalaureate certification, masters or doctoral level, are invited to begin their professional lives while students at the University.

NAEA STUDENT CHAPTER

We boast a vibrant and active student chapter of the National Art Education Association. University of Arizona students have a strong record of presenting at national and regional conferences, as well as serving on the organization’s boards and issues groups. Student members not only build a strong collegiality, but also benefit from professional development, networking, and funding opportunities.

The University of Arizona NAEA Student Chapter also organizes the Emerging Conversations Symposium. The symposium offers a space for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars in related fields, and community members to participate in research presentations, conversations about them, and dialogues regarding learning and activism in Art and Visual Culture Education.

Please visit the UA Student Chapter facebook page.

The parent organization of the UA’s student chapter is the National Art Education Association, whose mission is to promote art education through professional development, service, advancement of knowledge, and leadership.

ARIZONA ART EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (AAEA)

AAEA is the state affiliate of the NAEA. AAEA holds an annual fall conference and invites your participation in the conference or in organizational meetings held throughout the year. The website provides information about the organization, news, conferences, advocacy, as well as art teaching resources: http://www.azaea.org

• Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art & Visual Culture Education, Community & Museums or Teaching Emphasis
• Master of Arts in Art & Visual Culture Education, Art & Visual Culture Studies; Community & Museums; or Teaching Certification Emphasis
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Art History and Education, Art & Visual Culture Education Track
• Minor in Art Education

Contact an academic advisor or set up an advising appointment to learn more about School of Art programs and admissions.

Ready to join our community of dedicated artists, educators and scholars? Visit our Admissions page to start your application.