Opportunities to combine theory and practice have been an integral part of the Art and Design Education program since its inception more than 100 years ago. The Saturday Art School is the laboratory where learning how to teach and researching issues of pedagogy are modeled upon studio practice. Students test ideas, develop a personal teaching style, and explore research questions through participation and observation. The seminars following the Saturday classes are “crits” for reflection on both unfinished and completed projects.

M.S. in Art and Design Education Entrance Requirements

Entering students must hold an undergraduate degree with a minimum of 30 credit hours in appropriate technical courses in art and the history of art and design from a regionally accredited higher institution or from a higher institution approved by the New York State Education Department. Those students who do not have the minimum requirements in art and design course work may apply for the Qualifying Program, a 12-credit, one semester curriculum in Foundation Art.

A course in child and adolescent development and a year of foreign language study are preor co-requisites. In addition, required workshops in Child Abuse Prevention and Safety and Violence Prevention are included in the program.

International students are advised that in order to earn New York State certification as a teacher in the public schools, an individual must have a green card and have filed a Notice of Intention to become a citizen.

OPTION 1 of the 38-credit degree fulfills the course requirements for Initial Certification. Students may complete the program in a minimum of three semesters, not including summers.

OPTION 2 is designed for students who have Initial (previously Provisional) Certification.

Art & Design Education in South Africa

June 29-August 4, 2008

application deadline: march 17, 2008

The Art & Design Education Department at Pratt Institute is offering a five-week study abroad program this summer in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Port Elizabeth, located at the southeastern tip of the country, along the Algoa Bay, is known not only for its scenic beauty and rich culture but for its important history as the home of Nelson Mandela and many other African National Congress leaders. The program is open to students from other colleges and universities in any discipline as well as public and private school teachers and museum educators.

Curriculum
Students choose two of the following courses for either three undergraduate or graduate credits each:
Fieldwork in Art and Design Education
Ethnographic Documentation
Puppetry and Performing Objects
South African Arts and Culture

Cost (NOTE: some fees have changed)
Application Fee- Pratt students: none; non-Pratt students: $40
Deposit: $500, which is applied to tuition. Non-refundable unless the program doesn't run
Graduate tuition per credit- $1070
Undergraduate tuition per credit- $968
Pratt Study Abroad fee- $385
Excursions- $500
Student Housing- $700 (subject to change)
Note: Airfare costs will be assumed by the students. Group discounts will be arranged by the
department, with a stopover in Dakar already included in the program fee.

Extra-Curricular Activities
The program will also involve ongoing studio work, field trips to artists’ studios, museums, galleries, and schools with guest lectures by local South Africans. Possible weekend excursions may include visits to Kragga Kamma Game Park, Addo Elephant Park and Tsitsikamma, the National Park on South Africa’s coast. The fifth week of the program is set aside for planned excursions to Knysna, one of South Africa’s most traveled destinations, Cape Town, the summit of Table Mountain, and Oudtshoorn for a guided tour of an ostrich farm. It includes a two-day layover in Dakar, Senegal at the beginning of the program with a guided tour of the city.

Certification Requirements

The following academic requirements must be fulfilled prior to graduation and/or making an application for the Initial Teaching Certificate. The courses may be taken at Pratt or transferred from another school.

• College-level course in child/adolescent development (3 credits)
• College-level foreign language (6 credits) or three years of high school language with average of “B” or better.
• Workshop in Child Abuse Prevention
• Workshop in Safety and Violence Prevention (previously Fire and Life Safety)

In addition, the following requirements must be met for New York State Teacher Certification:

Fingerprinting and State Exams

Register for and take three New York State Teacher Certification Exams—the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, Assessment of Teaching Skills–Written (Elementary or Secondary), and the Content Specialty Test-Visual Arts Content. Each exam is $88.00. See NYSTCE link below.

Get fingerprinted through the New York City Department of Education (formerly BOE) or through NYSED. See NYSED link below. If you are fingerprinted through the New York City Department of Education (formerly BOE) you will need to complete an OSPRA 104. If you are fingerprinted through NYSED, you may need to complete an OSPRA 103 to work in NYC (see pdf versions of forms below). Both fingerprinting processes cost about $115.00. Fingerprinting packets for NYSED are in the ADE Office.

Apply for Certification:

Complete an Institutional Recommendation Request Form—see PDF versions below—for your degree and return to the ADE Office in person or via mail along with an unofficial transcript. To request a transcript free of charge, ask Laurel to request an inter-office copy from the Registrar. Use your degree audit or your transcript to complete the Request Form. Make sure the transcript lists your DATE of GRADUATION in the upper right hand corner.

Complete an online application through NYSED at TEACH online services. Please self-report your education, teaching experience, and apply for an initial certificate. See link below. You must pay a $50.00 fee to complete the application. Use the appropriate codes for your application: MS Degree: 24635, Adv Cert: 28145, Combined Degree: 23066.

Any questions about certification should be directed to Laurel Voss, lvoss@pratt.edu. When you are ready to be certified, you may mail your Institutional Request Form along with your unofficial transcript to:
Pratt Institute
Attention: Laurel Voss
Art and Design Education
Main 227
200 Willoughby Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205

For more detailed step-by step instructions, you may download certification instructions below.

Download documents:

External links:

Our pilot class in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, is modeled upon one of the summer courses (Pratt in Tuscany) we ran for several years in Lucca, Italy. Pratt students and qualified students in other programs teach art to a group of children and adolescents from kindergarten through high school. The city will provide the teachers with a broad range of subjects for projects and assignments, while the South African students will, in turn, become their mentors, sharing their knowledge of local culture and languages. The class, ADE 515A, Summer I, Fieldwork in Art and Design, is 3 credits and runs for one month. Participation in a related seminar twice weekly as well as a journal of the experience filled with a narrative, drawings, and photographs documenting work is required. This course fulfills part of the student teaching requirement in the ADE program.

We plan to add three additional courses in summer 2008--Puppetry, Art History, and one class from another department. We may also offer a week-long class in Florence during one of the school breaks.

Advanced Certificate in Art and Design Education

This program is open to individuals with an MFA degree or those currently enrolled in the MFA program at Pratt.

The program is 24 credit hours and may be completed in two semesters by those already holding the MFA degree. Applicants who have received an MFA from another institution may apply for an Advanced Certificate in Art and Design Education by contacting the Chair of the department.

The MFA Degree at Pratt Institute

MFA Pratt students may earn the certificate as part of their sixty (60) credit degree by taking six (6) credits of Liberal Studies in Education and eighteen (18) of their elective credits in Art and Design Education.

The Master of Fine Arts degree at Pratt Institute generally requires two (2) years of study. The time and amount of credits may not be reduced, but may be extended. However, all work for the degree must be completed within seven (7) calendar years after initial registration as a graduate student.

The program offers the following areas of study: Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Photography, and New Forms.

Each student is required to complete:

• Two (2) semesters of course work in a major area of concentration.

• One (1) year of work (12 credits) on a Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition and Thesis Statement.

• Nine (9) credits in Art Criticism and/or Art History.

• Six (6) credits of Liberal Studies (may include education courses for those seeking the Advanced Certificate in Art and Design Education).

• Twenty-seven (27) studio elective credits which may be used for a wide variety of interdisciplinary coursework in studio, technics, internships (may include eighteen (18) credits of art and design education).

Please contact Amy Brook Snider, Chair of Art and Design Education at absnider@pratt.edu or (718) 636 3637 or Main 227, Pratt Institute, for more information about the Advanced Certificate.

For a complete list of admissions requirements for a Masters of Science in Art and Design Education, please refer to the admissions section of the Pratt website.

Qualifying Program: MS in Art and Design Education

Applicants who do not have the required thirty-one credit hours in art and art history courses may be eligible for the Qualifying Program.

This program was established for individuals who have not had adequate studio preparation on the undergraduate level but meet the other entry requirements. A recommendation is made by the ADE Admissions Committee that applicants who are qualified for the degree program but need further studio work take a semester of Drawing, Light, Color, and Design, and Three- and Four Dimensional courses for a total of 12 credits in the undergraduate Foundation Department.

Upon completion of the Foundation coursework with an average of “B” or better, the student will be accepted into the MS in art and Design Education and will complete the required 38 credits for the degree.

For the complete list of admissions requirements for a Masters of Science in Art and Design Education, please refer to the admissions section of the Pratt website.

Portfolio Requirements

15 color copies of artwork and 15 color copies of teaching projects (if any) or digital images on a CD of at least 72dpi in JPG format. Portfolios should include work done in a variety of mediums as well as drawings done from direct observation. The actual portfolio can be brought directly to the interview with the Art and Design Education chair.

Along with the required application fee, three letters of recommendation, and official transcripts for admission, the department requires a statement of intention describing the applicant’s reasons for wanting to study art and design education at Pratt Institute.

For a complete list of admissions requirements for a Masters of Science in Art and Design Education, please see the admissions section of the Pratt website.

highlighted courses

2007-2008

Saturday Art School

Since 1897, Pratt Institute's Saturday Art School has been offering a broad range of classes for children, adolescents, pre-schoolers, and adults. This program continues to validate our belief that it is never too early or too late for children and adults to develop their potential as creative individuals. The program also provides us with compelling evidence that developing art ability enhances the learning and quality of work in other subjects.

For more information:

38 total credits required

34 total credits required

Main Building 227
200 Willoughby Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
Tel: (718) 636-3637
Fax: (718) 230-6817

Play and Performance

ADE-625

Just as play can be an important element of creativity, attention to performance values can transform teaching behavior. Using their observations and memories of childhood play, students will explore play and performance as sources for art-making in the classroom. Play will also be explored from a variety of theoretical, historical, aesthetic, and cultural perspectives. Students will analyze their performance (on video) as teaching artists and integrate performance into visual arts curricula. The role of play in learning and generating creativity in the art classroom will also be discussed.

3.00 credits

Student Teaching: After School

ADE-523

An introduction to teaching practice that precedes formal student teaching in the schools. In this laboratory situation, each student is responsible for the planning, teaching and evaluation of art lessons, guided by the theory and strategies presented in ADE 619. During a seminar immediately after each class, common issues and problems, both classroom and societal, are discussed.

2.00 credits

International Internships

ADE-530

A variety of art-and-design-related internships related to our international summer program will be offered, such as gallery and museum work, graphic and exhibition design, film and video production, photography and restoration and conservation. Placements are designed to relate to the needs, abilities, and vocational aspirations of the individual students.

2.00 - 6.00 credits

Fldwk in Art/Design Ed

ADE-616A

This course is about looking and provides an exercise in qualitative inquiry. Students will experience the complexities of a school art program through non-participant observation. Photographs and other visual material will be used to record what they have seen and later, they will search for patterns in the data collected in their journals. A final project will be designed in response to their observations and readings.

1.00 - 6.00 credits

Art of Teaching Art & Design

ADE-620

The aesthetic dimensions of the art and design curriculum and the spaces in which we teach and learn are the focus for discussion. Students will also reflect upon the questions raised during teaching in Saturday Art School, After-school or Galleries. An interdisciplinary approach to research in the development curriculum, the use of narrative to understand behavior, the value of motivation in classroom management, assessment, working with students with disabilities and special needs, and some practical ways to respond to and to analyze works of art will serve to direct advanced research by the students.

3.00 credits

Student Teaching: Galleries

ADE-524

Students are assigned to a class in one of three local New York City public high schools. They use exhibitions at the Pratt Manhattan gallery as a springboard for research on the work of the artist(s) and their contemporaries. Classes are held at the gallery and, during pre- and post- visits, at the schools. Weekly seminars in the gallery will follow each class.

2.00 credits

Puppets & Performing Objects

ADE-535

This studio course explores the various styles of puppetry: performing objects, shadow figures. Bunraku and other rod puppets, and body puppets, large-scale outdoor parade puppets, and toy theater. The goal is to create a unique and contemporary language of object, gesture, and story. The class culminates with final performances in any form or combination of puppetry forms.

3.00 credits

Student Teaching: Pre-K-HS

ADE-531A

This is the culminating experience in the Art and Design Education program. With the guidance of the cooperating teacher and college supervisor, the student participates in a professional teaching situation, applying the insights gained from previous coursework, reading, observation, and classroom practice.

2.00 - 6.00 credits

Media and Materials

ADE-630

This exploration of a central element in planning and implementing an art curriculum begins with the research and development of a series of related art projects. Particular literary works serve as subject matter for the projects and extensive experimentation with a variety of studio materials (photo-based media, computers, film and video) is encouraged. The role of technology in the making and teaching of art will also be examined, using interactive/graphics software to design a portfolio website. Through reading, writing, and discussion, issues such as age-appropriateness, teaching techniques and learning styles are also considered.

3.00 credits

3 The Art of Teaching Art & Design ADE-620
3 Media & Materials: From Studio to Classroom ADE-630
4 Fieldwork in Art & Design Education ADE-616A or ADE-616B
3 Elective credits
13 CREDITS

3 The Art of Teaching Art & Design ADE-620
2 Fieldwork in Art & Design Education
ADE-616A or ADE-616B
3 History & Philosophy of Education ED-600
3 Elective credits
11 CREDITS

4 Student Teaching: Public School, Pre-K–HS ADE-531A or ADE-531B
1 Student Teaching Seminar ADE-532A
3 Survey of Art Education or Design Education Literature ED-602 or ED-603
3 Thesis I ED-660A
11 CREDITS

The following academic requirements must be fulfilled prior to graduation and/or making an application for initial teaching certification. The courses may be taken at Pratt or transferred from another school.
3 Course in child/adolescent development
6 Foreign language study
0 Seminar in violence prevention
0 Seminar in child abuse prevention

3 Thesis II ED-660B
3 CREDITS

3 Special Topics ADE-621
3 Thesis I ED-660A
3 Elective credits
9 CREDITS

3 Survey of Art Education or Design Education Literature ED-602 or ED-603
3 Teacher in Film & Fiction ED-605
3 Elective credits
9 CREDITS

2 Thesis II ED-660B
2 CREDITS