Western Carolina University

Thank you for your interest in the Art Education Program within the School of Art and Design at Western Carolina University.  As the western-most of the NC State Universities, Western Carolina is located in a wildly -beautiful setting.  The new facilities in the Fine and Performing Arts Center are superb. 

The art education classroom (Room 150) enjoys a beautiful and spacious west-facing light and we have a copious children’s art collection, a huge masterworks poster collection and many other visual and electronic teaching resources.  The room is also equipped with a kiln, printing press, computer + projector unit, some weaving equipment, metalworking tools and other standard visual art and craft materials.

The School of Art and Design consists of twelve full-time professional artists/teachers, two art historians, and four part-time faculty.  We offer four undergraduate art degrees. Our BFA in Art Education prepares and certifies students to teach art to kindergarten through twelfth grade and is nationally accredited and recognized..  Our job placement rate for our Art Education graduates stands at 95% within one year of graduation.

Students with degrees in Art Education may also opt to teach art in therapeutic settings, work for art museums, teach art at the college level or offer private art classes.  The Art Education program at Western Carolina University supports a studio approach to art teaching with an emphasis in cross-cultural arts awareness.  Sixty hours of classroom visitation (at various schools and educational institutes) are required before a student does the final student teaching experience or internship at either an elementary or high school placement.

Art Education majors take 65 hours of art and art history courses, and 22 hours of education courses, in addition to the 42 general education credit hours required of all WCU students.  Art Education majors do not have a minor but select a “specialty” area in art in which they take two intermediate and one advanced course.  The WCU Art Education Club is very active and its participants offer workshops to adults and children as well as sponsoring the annual Youth Art Month Exhibition for Jackson County.  Art Education majors are also highly engaged in surrounding communities doing things such as: creating murals, teaching crafts in local nursing homes and attending state and national conferences each year. 

The Art Education faculty at Western Carolina University are dedicated to helping you become the best art teacher you can be.  They are engaged in professional development and will challenge you to speak well, write effectively and make sound judgments in the art classroom so that students will creatively thrive.

The Art Education program at Western Carolina University also offers MAT and MAEd degrees in Art Education.