The mission of the Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy is to critically engage cultural meaning through excellence in research, policy, teaching, and leadership that fosters social change and advances the public interest through the arts and visual culture. Our programs promote understanding of the arts and visual culture for all students through a curriculum that is research-based, interdisciplinary, and intent on collaboration with communities both within and outside the University, state, nation, and world. We emphasize understanding of arts and culture, especially visual culture, in a global, culturally diverse, and technological society. This content is explored through the following: pedagogical theory and practices; critical inquiry of historical and contemporary artworks; the analysis of public and educational policy in the arts and cultures; and inquiry in the philosophical, historical, and policy foundations of art education, arts management, and cultural policy administration. Our curriculum includes attention to understanding multimedia technologies in cultural production, critique of policies, teaching, learning, assessment, and awareness of comparative international practice. The scope of the Department’s undergraduate offerings includes general education and courses for elementary classroom teachers. The Department offers a Bachelor of Art Education degree program that provides undergraduate students with a well-rounded liberal arts education, intensive studies in visual culture, and significant preparatory course work in the theory and practice of art education. The Department also offers a Bachelor of Arts in Arts Management degree program that provides undergraduate students with in depth studies in arts and cultural institutions, leadership strategies, and management practices. The Department has taken the lead in the development of an undergraduate minor in entrepreneurship and the arts in collaboration with the Fisher College of Business. Graduate programs include courses for experienced teachers; a Master’s degree in arts policy and administration carried out in collaboration with the John Glenn School of Public Affairs; a set of museum education courses; professional development for in-service teachers and school administrators; and a wide array of doctoral research specializations. The Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy prepares educators, researchers, administrators and policy makers for research and practice in the interdisciplinary field of art education through its integrated, multifaceted programs and collaborations within and outside the University. Key goals are to prepare students to lead through the arts, to function as a critical and informed citizenry, to advance the public interest with regard to opportunity, diversity, effective public policy, social justice, and creativity. Through these endeavors the Department maintains its position of excellence at the local, state, national and international levels in the areas of research, teaching and service.
