RISD’s Department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design has established itself as an innovative, creative and stimulating environment for the advanced study of art and design teaching practices. The department’s program of academic studies is embedded within the realm of praxis, located within elementary and secondary schools, community arts organizations, art museums, and most recently, in colleges and universities.
The Department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design is a progressive and dynamic center of inquiry and practice, where faculty and student work involves a high level of engagement with communities beyond the boundaries of the college. In this regard, the department is committed to providing its graduate students with programming that links academic study directly to research and practice sites. This emphasis allows students to both explore and contribute to the development of new practices in art and design teaching across a continuum that spans kinder-garten to university and, indeed, beyond.
The hybrid nature of the Teaching + Learning in Art + Design department and its situation within the Division of Graduate Studies provide students with unique opportunities across its degree offerings, service-learning programming, certificate program in collegiate teaching, and funded outreach initiatives. These opportunities make optimal use of RISD’s extraordinary resources, particularly its studio and liberal arts faculty and, of course, The RISD Museum — a nationally renowned teaching museum.
Teaching + Learning in Art + Design graduate students’ studies are enhanced, for example, through work in Project Open Door – RISD’s initiative supporting underserved teens who demonstrate a commitment to art. The program combines wide-ranging studio opportunities with intensive college preparation and mentoring. Other initiatives include an innovative alliance with Providence’s Hope Arts High School, an urban school undergoing a transformation that places art and design at the core of the curriculum; and an emerging partnership with CVS Highlander (a K-8 charter school) and the community-based arts center CityArts, which have joined forces within the same recently renovated building on Providence’s Southside.
Additionally, Teaching + Learning in Art + Design graduate students benefit from the department’s relationships with regional and national art museums and with a range of Rhode Island-based, nonprofit community arts organizations, especially those working with urban children and youth, all of which provide opportunities for internship-based learning.
The department houses RISD’s emerging Forum on Art +
Design Collegiate Teaching which in collaboration with Brown University’s
Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning is dedicated to providing
graduate students from all of RISD’s studio areas with an introduction
to reflective teaching principles, an orientation to the collegiate teaching
experience and the scholarship of teaching.
The Department offers two graduate programs: the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) and the Master of Arts (MA) in Teaching + Learning in Art + Design. Fellowships and administrative, teaching, and research assistantships are available in both the MAT and MA programs.
