About Us
As we confront the new and challenging world of now, we need to keep in mind the increasingly important role the arts play in shaping human experience. The burgeoning world of technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its offshoots offer access to information beyond the scope of most human minds to comprehend but it has also focused our attention on those skills and talents that are uniquely human. Here, the arts offer us ways of converting that information into personal experiential knowledge and re-presenting it in ways that are socially and culturally compelling. For the arts that interplay the actions of mind and body remain free in an AI dominated world as they endow our everyday experiences with aesthetic presence by calling upon our imaginations and creative skills to consider how things-of-our-world might be shaped differently, valued differently, and might be otherwise understood.
All of this has great significance for how we think about the art education of children and young adolescents as they grow towards adulthood and about our own personal life-long learning. Our once settled notions of art and of psychological development have been challenged by new questions arising from our techno-diversified society and globalized culture in which we all live. What constitutes art, how is culture made and by whom, what experiential content do young people now bring to their developmental trajectories and what artistic-aesthetic forms does this take? My hope is that in this course participants will reflect on their own artistic trajectories and optimize their personal learning as we work towards new understanding of how the practice and appraisal of visual art (by implication all the arts), in both physical and digital forms, contributes to the full and flexible workings of the human mind.
Judy Burton
Program Director and Macy Professor of Education
Program Features
Faculty Research
Judith Burton
Professor Burton's research interests have, until recently, focused on attempts to understand the cognitive, affective and socio-cultural underpinning of artistic-aesthetic development in young people from birth to early adulthood. Read More
Olga Hubard
Professor Hubard is interested in the humanizing power of art and in how educators can help promote meaningful art experiences for all learners. Most of her scholarship to this point has focused on museum settings.
Richard Jochum
Dr. Jochum’s art practice is accompanied by research into the role of art schools, new media art and media art education, and art as a social practice.
Iris Bildstein
As an art-teacher educator and researcher, Dr. Bildstein is interested in the ways in which art-teacher education programs prepare pre-service candidates for the rigors of in-service teaching in contemporary schooling.
Nicole Johnson
Dr. Johnson's research interests focus on the lifelong professional education of art educators. She has a particular interest in the relationships between personal identities and subjectivities—including artistic identities and affiliations—with professional learning and growth as an art educator.
Student Research
Explore Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses. Learn More
The Center for Arts Education Research (CAER)
The Center for Arts Education Research (CAER) undertakes both applied and basic research. To date, researchers have carried out a number of funded assessment studies focusing on the impact on student learning of school-cultural institution collaborations. In many cases, senior and junior faculty work together with doctoral students on research teams. Learn More
Our dedicated art studios allow you to actively create art while you continue your studies. In fact, all of our degree tracks require studio work. While each studio space supports specialized courses, many students work across studios integrating a variety of materials and processes.
For our policy on studio use, please refer to our FAQ.
An active program of projects and collaborations keeps the Program in dialogue with the world beyond Teachers College, contributing to a vibrant learning environment. Our projects vary in focus and nature, and often provide opportunities for students to network and gain valuable experience in the field.
To view our latest projects and collaborations, visit our Program News
Projects, Collaborations & Awards
Cross-Cultural Conversations Symposia
These yearly or biyearly symposia invite local, national, and international artists, scholars, and educators to explore timely issues with our students and faculty. Registration is open to participants from within and beyond Teachers College; generally offered for credit and non-credit.
TC/Whitney Fellowship
A competitive, funded research fellowship at the Whitney Museum of American Art, awarded to an Art and Art Education student every school year.
Myers Projects
Colonel Eugene Myers was a student at Columbia University just before World War II. He collaborated with Professor Edwin Ziegfeld on the development of his seminal text Art Today, which was co authored by Ray Faulkner and Gerald Hill. Thanks to the generous support of the Myers Foundations, the Program in Art and Art Education has been able to sponsor and sustain a series of projects.
- Myers Lecture Series: The Myers Lecture Series brings artists, scholars, performers and international guests to Teachers College to share their work with our students.
- Myers Art Competition: The Program established the Myers Art Competition in 2010. Each year, students are presented with a challenge to meet in their work and are invited to submit the outcomes for review by an outside juror for exhibition and award.
- Myers Publications: The generous support of the Myers Foundations has made possible a series of publications that extend our work throughout the art education community.
Graduate Research in Art Education Symposium (GRAE)
The GRAE is an annual symposium that provides a forum for doctoral students in art education to discuss their research projects and explore with each other and faculty from partnering institutions the questions and issues they raise. This project is a collaboration of Teachers College, Pennsylvania State University, and Ohio State University. An archive of previous GRAE meetings can be found at this link.
Sean Scully: Broadway Shuffle Curriculum
Prof. Olga Hubard, Queena Ko, Filippa Christofalou, and Pauline Kwon developed a K-12 curriculum for the NYC pubic art exhibition: Sean Scully: Broadway Shuffle. The curriculum is designed to promote meaningful encounters with the sculptures in the exhibition. Through inquiry-based dialogue, art making, creative writing and more, the activities in the curriculum nurture curiosity, exploration, imagination, and discovery. Learners engage with Sean Scully's artworks and ideas from their own stance, while considering life in a city that connects people, nature, and art.
Though the curriculum is designed for K-12 students, it is also suitable for families and community groups. The exhibition is on view on upper Broadway in Manhattan between July 2024 -March 2025.
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine
The Program in Art and Art Education has a long and rich relationship with Haystack. Students from the Program regularly attend Haystack courses during the summer sessions in Maine, earning credit towards their degrees at Teachers College. In addition, teams of students and faculty members travel each fall to the Haystack Art Schools Collaborative.
Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing, China
The art and art education faculty of Teachers College have collaborated with counterparts at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) Beijing, PRC, on the development of an Art Education Master's Program for Chinese students. As part of this collaboration, there have been ongoing faculty exchanges. In addition, CAFA students have shown their work in the Macy Art Gallery, and several have now completed doctoral study in our Program. Before COVID-19, Teachers College students have also taken summer courses at CAFA.
Dr. Chiles Book Arts Stipend
The Program in Art and Art Education is grateful to the late Lucylee Chiles for her generous financial gift to Teachers College. Dr. Chiles–artist, art educator, researcher–was a proud alum of our doctoral program. Her gift funds the yearly Dr. Chiles Book Arts Stipend, awarded to students who have completed outstanding academic work.
In honor of Dr. Chiles, the Program has created a special bookplate, which celebrates the botanical artwork she created towards the end of her life.
Designed by Carolina Rojas Céspedes, Art and Art Education doctoral student.
Recipients of the Dr. Chiles Book Arts Stipend
Hannah Heller (Ed.D. ’20) 2019-2020
“[My academic journey] was very personally rewarding and I hope my work helps push the art education field towards racial justice.”
Laura Scherling (Ed.D. ’20) 2019-2020; 2015-2016
“The faculty in my program encourage me to research and write for real-world applications. I have published in multiple journals and received my first book deal under contract with Bloomsbury Academic. This would not have been possible without the education I have received at TC.”
Juyoung Yoo (Ed.D. ’19) 2018-2019
“I was incredibly humbled knowing that the donor of this scholarship understood and valued the importance of art and education.”
Carina Maye (Ed.D. Candidate) 2018-2019
“I continue to expand my artistic skills, pedagogy, and knowledge to equip my students for the future.”
Angela S. Allmond (Ed.D. ’19) 2017-2018
“I look back on a full and rich educational experience at Teachers College.”
Sae A. Lee (Ed.D. Candidate) 2017-2018
“The desire to help students motivated me to step into the classroom.”
Pilar Vicuna-Dominguez (M.A. ’18) 2016-2017
“I learned in meaningful ways from my TC classmates and professors.”
Nora Chen (M.A. ’18) 2016-2017
“My experience at Teachers College equipped me with the tools and knowledge I need to address issues of social justice as they relate to art, culture, and education.”
Amy Charleroy (Ed.D. ’21) 2015-2016
“I deeply appreciate the spirit in which this award was made.”
Miami Project
Working with artists from the South Miami Arts Center, a group of Teachers College doctoral students and faculty explored the creation of a community/performance work that centered on the theme of The Kitchen. The project engaged local restaurant workers, families, and children in a weeklong site-specific and participatory event. This project was documented in all its phases and used for research and pedagogical purposes. Following this collaboration, team members worked at multiple sites in Miami and New York City to engage community members in making works that explore memories of place.
The Comic Book Project
The Comic Book project is a world-renowned literacy initiative that engages young people in writing, designing, and publishing original comic books leading to academic reinforcement, social awareness and character development. The program was founded in 2001 at Teachers College by Dr. Michael Bitz, who maintained contact with the Art and Art Education Program through lectures and workshops on his work.
The Macy Art Gallery is one of the last spaces at Teachers College that is still in its original use. The Gallery presents a wide range of exhibitions by national and international artists, graduate students, faculty members, and alumni, as well as examples of artworks by children of all ages. The year-round exhibition schedule reflects the commitment of Teachers College to cultural diversity in education and the visual arts.