What Is Discipline-Based Art Education?

Discipline-based art education (DBAE) is a comprehensive approach to art education that takes
advantage of art's special power to educate. The Getty Education Institute for the Arts advocates DBAE
as an effective means by which to help students experience the visual arts in a variety of ways.

Following its foundation in 1982, the Getty Education Institute adopted the ideas of art educators who
had been calling for a more holistic, comprehensive, and multifaceted approach to art education. One of
the premises guiding the Getty Education Institute's programs was that, because of the creation of
artworks and inquiry into the meaning of the arts are primary means through which we understand
human experiences and transmit cultural values, the visual arts should be an essential part of every
child's education.

Educators who take the DBAE approach integrate content from the four disciplines that contribute to
the creation, understanding, and appreciation of art. These disciplines of art provide knwwledge, skills,
and understandings that enable students to have a broad and rich experience with works of art

1. by making art (art production);

2. by responding to and making judgments about the properties and qualities that exist in visual
forms (art criticism);
3. by acquiring knowledge about the contributions artists and art make to culture and society (art
history); and
4. by understanding the nature, meaning, and value of art (aesthetics).

Not only do teachers incorporate paintings, drawings, sculpture, and architecture into their lessons, but
they also include "fine," applied, craft, and folk arts, such as ceramics, weaving and other textile arts,
fashion design, and photography. Students work with and study a variety of visual images and objects
that carry unique meaning for human beings from all cultures and times.

Although there are DBAE curricula, DBAE itself is an approach to instruction and learning in art and
not a specific curriculum. It exists in many forms to meet the needs of the community in which it is
taught. Examples of variation include selecting one or more of the disciplines as a central or core
discipline(s) for helping students understand works of art; featuring settings such as art museums or
community centers and the original artworks they collect or display; integrating the arts with other
subject areas; and pursuing newer technologies.

This approach is compatible with the goals for art education stated by the College Board, the Council of
Chief State School Officers, the National Art Education Association, the National School Boards
Association, and many state departments of education.
Getty Education Institute for the Arts
ArtsEdNet URL: http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/