The University of Iowa Art Education Program pioneered the concept of Artist as Teacher, a philosophical grounding for completion of a studio degree with art teacher K-12 certification. In the Art Education Community and Institutional Partnerships Project we prepare university Art Education students, Under-graduate and Graduate, to provide art education through building partnerships in which creative exchanges between public school curricula, teaching and community service initiatives occur. In practice, we provide extended practicum experiences for teacher education in which art educators are social agents important on many planes, working in the multiplicity of diverse communities.

In the Spring of 2000 The University of Iowa's Art Education Program, under the umbrella of the Art Education and Community and Institutional Partnerships Project, offered a course for graduate students called Art in the Community. This course touched upon topics related to the praxis of working as an artist-as-teacher in community settings. Community art making sites are repositories for the constructed context, process, content, and translation of individuated ideas into materials. The experiences created by this course enabled graduate students to acess a wide variety of possibilites that added to their educational research, art, arts advocacy, arts administration knowledge, social responsibility, and communicative/interactive strategies with diverse arts audiences. The College of Liberal Arts generously funded this course through grants provided for instructional improvement. Please visit our website for more information and images.

 Saturday Art Workshops

In conjunction with Methods: Art, Art Education conducts The Saturday Art Workshop Program each semester. Approximately 100 children attend nine 1 1/2 hour workshops, in the basement of North Hall, taught by undergraduate students preparing to be art teachers. Interested parents click here for more information.

Local art teachers, the Art Education Area of the University of Iowa requests your help in informing your students of the Saturday Art Workshops.