Ryan Patton, Ph.D.
Associate professor and chair
The Department of Art Education supports instruction in art that encourages the construction of meaning. Faculty and students are actively involved with the art world, education and local and global communities through art-based service-learning, visual culture studies, critical thinking, exhibition, assessment, curriculum, critical theory and emerging digital technologies (virtual and interactive).
The department emphasizes interdisciplinary connections throughout the School of the Arts and the university as a whole. Through their own research and instruction, art teacher candidates engage their students and themselves in traditional and nontraditional forms of inquiry to contribute to the continuing growth and strength of the profession.