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Ben Franklin
Ben Franklin advocated art education in his Proposed Hints for an Academy. -
William Bentley Fowle
William Bentley Fowle published An Introduction to Linear Drawing, the first documented book for teaching art in the United States. He translated the book from French and added problems, illustrations, and instruction for basic perspective drawings. -
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Amos Alcott
At Boston’s Temple School, established by Amos Alcott, children were permitted to draw in order to stimulate the imagination and train the hand and eye -
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Horace Mann
Horace Mann (Impressed with Peter Schmid’s drawing system seen on his visits to Prussian schools) included drawing lessons in Massachsetts’ public classrooms. Credited drawing exercises with facilitating the development of manual skill and as sound preparation for mechanical and industrial work. The first major orientation of the visual arts in American education had its beginning in the service industry. -
William Minife
William Minife advocated art as a training in taste for all pupils and as a means of discovering art talent for use in the industries. -
Massachusetts adopts arts as part of the general education program
Massachusetts is the first state to adopt the arts as part of the general education program. -
Elizabeth Peabody
Elizabeth Peabody (teacher at Alcott’s Temple School) brought Froebel’s ideas to Boston. Argued that the harmonious play of mind and heart advocated by Froebel was well satisfied in imagination-producing activities like drawing and painting. Believed that childish play itself had all the main characteristics of art, and therefore children’s education ought to begin with emphasis on sensory experience and learning relationships through handling various objects and materials. -
Walter Smith
Walter Smith set up a program of drawing for all public school children. Devised a series of geometric exercises which were intended to coordinate the movements of hand and eye, and emphasize precise and clean draftsmanship and craftsmanship. Insisted that vocational uses of draftsmanship would serve students well after they completed school. Regular teachers should teach art with help from his book Teachers’ Manual of Freehand Drawing and Designing. -
Massachusetts Normal Art School
The Massachusetts Normal art school opened. The school's original goal is to prepare teachers in drawing instruction. The Massachusetts Normal School is now the Massachusetts College of Art. -
Child Study Movement
G. Stanley Hall introduces the Child Study Movement which was led by psychologists and educators who agreed that schools needed to serve new functions and should adapt to the needs of the developing child. The education system was evolving from an institution that treated children as miniature adults into one that focused on specific needs and individualism in children. The catalysts for the movement included G. Stanley Hall, Freud, and Dewey. -
National Education Association
The National Education Association designates a Department of Art which gives educators guidelines and ideas to use in the classroom while discussing and aiding in solving major issues in education. -
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Picture Study Movement
The Picture-Study Movement brought “art appreciation” into public schools. Artwork, often with moral or religious messages, were viewed and discussed by young children. “Art for art’s sake” began with a focus on technique. -
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Henry Turner Bailey
Henry Turner Bailey promoted the goal of developing a sense of design through his widely-read journal in Art Education School Arts. He taught that children should compose natural forms in neat and compact areas, and in the later grades move to lettering and design for craft objects. Also saw art as a refuge for the child from the burdens of daily life. -
Arts and Crafts Movement
The Arts and Crafts Movement begins, blending art and manual training. -
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The Bauhaus
The Bauhaus, under Walter Gropius, artists studied painting, sculpture, ceramics, typography, architecture, and photography with new problem-solving techniques.
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The Great Depression
As the effects of the Depression cascaded across the US economy, millions of people lost their jobs. By 1930 there were 4.3 million unemployed; by 1931, 8 million; and in 1932 the number had risen to 12 million. By early 1933, almost 13 million were out of work and the unemployment rate stood at an astonishing 25 percent. Those who managed to retain their jobs often took pay cuts of a third or more. -
Finger Paints
Finger paints were first used by one of Ruth Faison Shaw's elementary school children at the Shaw School in Rome. The idea of finger paints came to Shaw when she sent a student to the bathroom to put iodine on his cut. When he did not return, she found him painting iodine all over the bathroom walls. Finger-painting was later instituted in America in April of 1936. -
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FDR’s New Deal
To provide direct relief, economic recovery, and financial reform for America during the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt implements a series of “alphabet reform” agencies. Known as the New Deal, FDR creates projects that give emphasis to preservation and education. The Treasury Relief Art Project, Works Progress Administration, and the Federal Writers Project are among some of the arts-related reform agencies. -
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Owatonna Project
Took place in a small town in Owatonna, Minnesota. Melvin E. Haggerty and Edwin Ziegfield, along with a group of graduate students, conduct a study in which an art curriculum for all ages integrated into a small Midwestern community. The study is the first of its kind. The goal of the program is to integrate the curriculum into the schools and community so that educators and community leaders can continue the program once the study is complete. -
John Dewey
John Dewey wrote Art as Experience in which he insisted that art is a process “an experience” and the product is the residue after art has taken place. According to Dewey, at is a vehicle for developing general creative abilities. -
Federal Art Project
The Works Progress Administration set up the Federal Art Project to utilize the skills and talents of America’s unemployed artists. Hundreds of projects were initiated, many of which involved school children; design and construction of parade floats, making posters and creating stage settings were among the typical community and school projects. Artists lectured, demonstrated their techniques, and some painted murals especially in schools.
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World War II
Men were being drafted to fight in the war causing more women to enter into the work force. -
Viktor Lowenfeld
Viktor Lowenfeld wrote Creative and Mental Growth which detailed the natural stages of development in art.
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National Art Education Association (NAEA)
NAEA was founded and is the leading professional membership organization exclusively for visual arts educators.
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Increased leisure time
Increased leisure time led to more people interested in art as a recreational activity. Art education continued to be seen as an instrument for the attainment of non-artistic ends. -
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Desegregation
Emergence of minority groups. Desegregation of public institutions and services. -
Manuel Barkan
Manuel Barkan wrote Transition in Art Education, in which he argued that the focus on education the “whole child” has led to the view of art as “child’s play.” To learn art, one must behave like an artist, an art critic, and an art historian. -
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Art Curriculum Alternatives
A variety of art curriculum alternatives are developed as art educators try to justify their place in formal education for all students: “Artists in the Schools,” “Related-Arts Program,” “Environmental Art Education,” “Art for the Handicapped,” “Art Therapy,” etc. -
Accountability Movement
The Accountability Movement begins in the mid-1970’s as result of increased public pressure to hold the nation’s educational system accountable for declining test scores. The focus shifts from curriculum content to the development of assessment tools, instructional and behavioral objectives, and competency-based teacher education.
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Arts-in-Education Movement
Political and social activism of the late 1960’s and the 1970’s leads to a questioning of an educational system that is regimented and disciplined based. The proponents of the Arts-in-Education Movement see art as ‘an experience’ that is achieved through process participation and viewing the working process of performing artists. -
Discipline Based Art Education
Discipline-based art education (DBAE) is an educational program formulated by the J. Paul Getty Trust in the early 1980s. DBAE supports a diminished emphasis on studio instruction, and instead promotes education across four disciplines within the arts: aesthetics, art criticism, art history and art production. -
Art Infusion Initiative
Integrated and coordinated school curricula in which art is infused into other subject areas in order to improve learning in all disciplines. By incorporating the fine arts into other academic subjects the student receives a complete education in which he/she gains confidence, preparation for the future, and problem solving skills while actively engaging in the subject matter. -
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Visual Culture Art Education VCAE
Visual Culture Art Education - art students are asked to question what they see and what it might mean in the context of the image’s history and local and global societies. The students gain awareness for aesthetics and social issues while having the freedom to create artworks that pertain to their own lives.
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Annenberg Challenge
Walter H. Annenberg’s $500 million “challenge to the nation” is announced on December 17, 1993. The Annenberg Foundation calls for school reform through the arts to improve education in rural and inner-city schools, and to revitalize current reform efforts, provide unity to simultaneous efforts, and to inspire new ones.
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Neo DBAE
Neo-DBAE includes multicultural, non-traditional art forms, and qualitative forms of assessment. Art can be taught separately from other subject areas or can be integrated into them in order to improve student learning.
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Goals 2000: Educate America Act
Signed by President Bill Clinton to improve learning and teaching by providing a national framework for education reform; to promote the research, consensus building, and systemic changes needed to ensure equitable educational opportunities and high levels of educational achievement for all students; to provide a framework for reauthorization of all Federal education programs; to promote the development and adoption of a voluntary national system of skill standards and certifications. -
National Visual Arts Standards
National Art Education Association (NAEA) submits six content standards for grades K-4, 5-8, and 9- 12 to the Secretary of Education, Richard W. Riley. The National Visual Arts Standards provide guidelines for visual art programs, instruction, and teacher training and state what students should know and do in the arts.
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The National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)
The purpose is to uphold high standards for what teachers should know and be able to do. It provides a national voluntary certification system in which a teacher must submit a portfolio and complete assessment center exercises. Art teachers must prove proficiency in ten standards and have a choice of certification in EC-5 and 6-12.
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Teaching for Artistic Behavior
Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) gains support in art education. TAB is a philosophical approach to art education that places children at the center of artmaking choices.
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No Child Left Behind
Signed by President George W. Bush, the act states that the arts are now considered one of the “core academic subjects.” The No Child Left Behind act reinstates the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, holding schools accountable for student achievement and giving penalties to the schools that do not make enough progress to meet its goals.
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NAEP
The National Assessment of Education Policy is the sole ongoing national assessment of what American students know and can do in an assortment of academic subjects. The visual arts are reported on in the seventies, 1998, 2016, and will be reported again in 2024.
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