[September 18, 2025 | 7pm ET] Open Studio Conversation with NAEA's ED&I Commission

[November 14, 2024] The session begins with an engaging presentation by Peyton Scott Russell, followed by an interactive Q&A session led by National Art Honor Society (NAHS) and National Junior Art Honor Society (NJAHS) students.

[October 2, 2024] Research in disability studies can help art educators reframe ways of engaging with disability issues. Learn about the use of disability arts to engage learners in critical visual literacy and imagery production focused on topics of disability. Discover critical approaches to language and decentering normalcy to create inclusive learning spaces for all.

[September 26, 2024] In today’s complex landscape, the pursuit of equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) can often be met with resistance, skepticism, or even penalties. This presentation explores practical strategies for advancing ED&I initiatives in environments where such efforts are not always welcomed or understood. We’ll delve into the challenges of advocating for change, discuss methods to build resilience, and share insights on how to effectively move forward while managing risks. Join us to learn how to navigate this critical work in a world that continues to evolve, where ED&I remains essential to this progress.

[June 5, 2024] NAEA is committed to supporting our current and future visual arts, design, and media arts educators. Pandemic burnout, early retirements, rise in school violence, lack of clear career pathways, and ongoing pedagogical cultural wars—among other challenges—make the recruitment and retention of art teachers increasingly more difficult. To better understand and address the obstacles that current and future art educators face, as well as the growing issue of educator staffing shortages, the NAEA Board of Directors has formed a national “Art Education Teacher Recruitment and Retention Task Force.” The Task Force is tasked with investigating the obstacles and opportunities to entering and serving the field of visual arts, design, and media arts education, and engage with the membership, peer organizations, and external experts to gather data and draft a report of findings and recommendations for short, mid, and long-term action to be presented to the Board. Join us as members of the NAEA Art Education Teacher Recruitment and Retention Task Force share their findings and recommendations for the association and the field.

At a moment when equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives are being challenged in education (including studio art classrooms), this timely webinar features a panel of art education scholars who will share research catalyzed by EDI issues—including race, class, sexuality and gender, ability, poverty, and first-generation experiences. The panelists, who are all members of the College Teaching of Art Working Group, conduct research in a wide range of contexts and places. Each member will highlight how they attend to equity, diversity, and inclusion in their research practice, and how this impacts their teaching. For these panelists, “research” is understood as something learned by art education researchers in their efforts to grow and contribute to the work of unmaking oppressive structures in higher education art and design.

[March 1, 2023] Join us as we unpack the meaning and characteristics of an inclusive learning environment through art while uncovering a variety of pedagogical approaches and instructional strategies to build inclusive communities in your learning spaces. Learn firsthand how inclusive community building has helped students develop a stronger sense of belonging and how studying a community’s local history and its demographic landscape helps to expand understanding of inclusive learning. Come away with strategies to align art teaching resources with cultural competence in order to address issues related to diversity, social justice, and inclusion.

The NAEA Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Commission aims to center perspectives and amplify voices of historically minoritized and/or underserved art educators and learners. The ED&I Commission has been committed to this work since its inception in 2019. In this webcast, members of the ED&I Commission will provide an overview of the important work of the Commission, and share exciting news on upcoming projects and initiatives. Over the past several years, the Commission has created scholarship opportunities for the NAEA Convention and NAEA programming, as well as presented at National Conventions. In doing so, the Commission has continued to address and adhere to recommendations created by the NAEA ED&I Task Force. Learn more about tools and resources developed by the Commission, such as an online network connecting members with NAEA’s affinity and identity groups, and download the Commission’s past and most recent columns and writings. Webcast participants can also email questions to the Commission prior to the live webcast at edi@arteducators.org, and we will also open the floor to questions during the live session.

[September 7, 2022] Current political situations can be difficult for art educators to navigate. Join us as we explore practical strategies for teaching social justice through a K–12 lens. Discover ways to include all learners in the process of developing, creating, and presenting social justice artworks while incorporating inclusive communication strategies. Use this process to develop a proactive approach to teaching potentially uncomfortable topics while facilitating difficult conversations in the art room. A Library of Congress representative will also share how primary sources in their collections can be valuable teaching tools—photographs, newspaper articles, posters, correspondence, and more can capture student attention and provide historical points of entry into social justice topics that resonate today.

[June 1, 2022] Join us for reflection on the trajectory of art museums in making authentic change in the realm of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Art museum educators have a unique opportunity and responsibility to foster meaningful, inclusive, and accessible learning experiences for K–12 learners. To enact this work, they continuously strive to deepen their understanding of the identities and needs of a diverse set of learners, prioritizing the needs of those who have traditionally felt the museum was not a place for them. In response, art museum educators have become very intentional about what (i.e., which artworks and which narratives related to them), how (i.e., the pedagogy), and who is involved in teaching, as well as how to approach and nurture relationships with schools. Museum educators are also committed to a continual process of reflection on and disruption of the ways that white supremacy culture informs the work they do with staff—including hiring, management, mentorship, team building, and retention.