Art Education Graduate Certificate Programs

Updated: Jun 12, 2024

People who love working with children and enjoy exploring their creative side may find a promising career in art education. Art teachers can choose to specialize in working with small children or can hone in on specific art skills (like pottery or pen-and-ink drawing) with older students. An online art education graduate certificate can make it all happen.

What Are the Online Art Education Graduate Certificate Requirements?

Admission requirements for an online art education graduate certificate vary from program to program, yet many have similar requirements. These may include:

Undergraduate or graduate degreee in art
Teaching certificate in another subject area (not required by all programs)
Prerequisite courses
Interview with program faculty

What Type of Classes Are Included in the Online Art Education Graduate Certificate Curriculum?

It’s smart for budding art teachers to find a program that makes sense for them. Classroom teachers with years of experience who want to learn about specializing in art may find that they don’t need as much classroom management education as an art professional who is interested in venturing into the classroom for the first time.

Courses required during an art education graduate certificate program may include:

Teaching inquiry in art
Teaching visual culture
Instruction-based assessment
Special education concepts
School health
Socially-engaged art education
Culture and schooling
Educational psychology

Art education programs may also require future teachers to complete an in-classroom internship or student teaching experience. Students who are currently working in the classroom may want to talk to their program advisor about whether their time at work can count toward their student teaching requirement.

What Type of Career Can I Pursue with an Online Art Education Graduate Certificate?

While many educators who go through an art education graduate certificate program decide to teach in a traditional classroom environment, others prefer a different career path. Art education graduate certificate careers may include:

Homeschool Enrichment Teacher: Many families who homeschool engage in cooperative arrangements, in which many homeschooled children come together for weekly special activities, such as art class. Rather than parents teaching specialized classes on their own, they often bring in trained professionals to instruct their children in art, music, and other artistic areas of study.
Traditional Art Teacher: While the idea of a traditional art teacher brings up ideas of teaching in a well-decorated art classroom with students parading in and out every hour, many of today’s art classrooms look a bit different. Budgetary constraints and other issues can mean that several schools share one traveling art teacher, or that students only see their art teacher once per week (or even once every two weeks). While some constraints can make teaching art in today’s world tough, many art teachers enjoy the flexibility to create their own curriculum, especially in private/charter school environments.
Museum-based Art Educator: For educators who want to work with children but prefer a less traditional environment, working in a museum can be an exciting way to get young people interested in art. Little learner art classes, curation of children’s exhibits, and instructing summer art camps can all be fun ways for art educators to interact with children outside of an in-school classroom environment.