[custom_adv] PLNU is one of a select number of universities in California that has an art education program accredited by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC). The Bachelor of Arts in Art Education program will prepare you to enter a credentialed program to teach visual arts in K-12 classrooms. [custom_adv] Whether you decide to pursue your credential in the PLNU School of Education or finish your licensing elsewhere, the uncompromising foundational education you’ll receive in this warm, close-knit community will ensure you’re ready to take the next step to teach art. [custom_adv] Americans for the Arts envisions a country where everyone has access to—and takes part in—high quality and lifelong learning experiences in the arts, both in school and in the community. [custom_adv] The arts are essential. They teach students innumerable lessons—practice makes perfect, small differences can have large effects, collaboration leads to creativity. The arts also teach children that there a several paths to take when approaching problems and that all problems can have more than one solution. [custom_adv] Research has also shown impressive benefits of arts education on entire school culture—especially student motivation, attitudes, and attendance. Numerous reports discuss the ways that increased access and involvement in arts education encourage students to stay in school, succeed in school, succeed in life, and succeed in work. [custom_adv] This series of e-books is designed to help educators, students, and advocates alike navigate the complex field of arts education. Each e-book in the Navigator series covers a specific topic, ensuring arts education supporters like you are equipped with the knowledge, statistics, and case-making techniques needed to effectively communicate with decision-makers. [custom_adv] Art, also called (to distinguish it from other art forms) visual art, a visual object or experience consciously created through an expression of skill or imagination. The term art encompasses diverse media such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, decorative arts, photography, and installation. [custom_adv] The various visual arts exist within a continuum that ranges from purely aesthetic purposes at one end to purely utilitarian purposes at the other. Such a polarity of purpose is reflected in the commonly used terms artist and artisan, the latter understood as one who gives considerable attention to the utilitarian. This should by no means be taken as a rigid scheme, however.