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FIAE is a statewide project designed to develop Discipline-Based Art Education models.

Staff Development

Looking at art in a new way...how it relates to learning. School district teams of principals, classroom teachers, art teachers, board members and curriculum consultants attend an intensive Summer Staff Development session where they are immersed in an extraordinary envoironment for encountering art.

They hear experts in each of the disciplines, participate in discussions and workshops, demonstration teaching with adults and students and examine instructional materials. They visit area museums and galleries and meet artists in their studios to learn about the creative process. Unique features of the Institute include a focus on thematic ideas in art; scanning, an entry level method to the four disciplines; extended experiences in descriptive writing, poetry, drama and music and connections to the total curriculum.

Curriculum Implementation

Making Disipline-Based Art Education part of the curriculum begins when district teams return to their own schools. Guided by the district plan they have developed, teams continue to work together to provide students with consistent instruction in art.

The Institute provides strong support services through site visits to each district by classroom art consultants who observe, advise , and act as mentors to teachers. They also provide additional inservice workshops, demonstration teaching and resources. The Institute directors and the project evaluator monitor district plans and encourage community support.

Two renewal meetings are held for all school teams to reinforce the DBAE content. Participants also receive an Institute newsletter to share activities and ideas for the classroom.

At the heart of the Institute is students. They compare Picasso and Matisse, solve problems when they paint, understand why Bierstadt idealized the West, and debate "what is art."

Multi-Year Plan

The scope of the project gives districts time to collaborate with the Institute to make DBAE a reality. In the first year, each team makes presentations for interested staff, board members and community groups, In the second year, additional teams are trained at the summer staff development session and be gin to implement. By the third year, an Institute faculty member assists district teams in conducting their own teacher inservice education designed to make the visual arts an integral part of the curriculum for all students.

In addition to these model regional sites, art educators from university or museums attend the Institute in order to initiate DBAE in their own settings. The goal is to develop a cadre of trained personnel, exemplary instructional units and a new status for visual art in the state.

A Vision for Educating....

The Florida Institute for Art Education is part of a vision - an approach that regards art as a way of thinking and knowing, essential to the learning of every child.

Discipline-Based ARt Education expands on traditional art teaching, which focuses primarily on making art, to integrating content and theory from four disciplines:

1. Criticism - Analyzing a work of art

2. History - Understanding art as part of culture

3. Aesthetics - Exploring the nature and value of art

4. Production - Developing skills to expres ideas and images.

This concept, advocated by the Getty Center for Education in the Arts, regards art as a serious subject of study guided by a written sequential curriculum. Systematic instruction gives students opportunities to develop skills of critical thinking, problem-solving, interpretation, judgement and a unique perspective of history and culture.

...an approach that regards art as a way of thinking and knowing, essential to the learning of every child.