Visual and Performing Arts Education Program

Teaching, Researching, and Creating Diverse Arts Communities

With the goal of being at the center of the statewide and national debate regarding the importance of the arts for all students, and to be a catalyst for positive change in urban arts education, the mission of the Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) Program in the School of the Arts and Architecture is to expose UCLA undergraduates to the rich history of arts education in the U.S. and to highlight its role in a diverse society.

VAPAE’s Arts Education courses are robust, offering students across the School the option to declare a Minor in Arts Education, and the opportunity to focus on the following concentrations: Strategies and Methods in Teaching the Arts; Arts in the Community; Teaching the Arts in Non-traditional Settings and with Special Populations; Social-Emotional Learning in the Arts; and Interdisciplinary Arts Teaching.

In response to the pressing needs in our local schools to provide high quality arts curricula, students in VAPAE’s Arts Education Teaching Sequence go from theory to classroom observation to lesson design to implementation as they teach their original arts-based lessons in UCLA-affiliated TIE-IN schools and Title I LAUSD schools that are primarily located in underserved communities throughout Los Angeles.

Through its innovative afterschool arts and arts enrichment programs, as well as public events, interdisciplinary community arts initiatives, and special arts projects, VAPAE provides UCLA students with a range of experiential opportunities to develop into qualified teaching artists, while introducing them to a range of possible careers in the arts.

In the 2020-21 academic year, VAPAE found new ways to bring arts education to K-12 students to meet in-person and distance learning needs. Through the Arts Education Teaching Sequence, UCLA undergraduates worked with credentialed classroom teachers at 14 school sites to provide arts instruction for approximately 875 K-12 students across Southern California. And beyond the classroom, VAPAE offered six community arts programs, hosted two community arts showcases and provided over 400 free grab-and-go art kits — reaching more than 336 local students, their families and community members.

Your support will ensure that local K-12 students and their families connect and grow as artists and community members, while also developing social and creative confidence, by participating in rich artistic experiences taught by VAPAE-trained Teaching Artists, finding inspiration in their everyday surroundings, and gaining a broader view of what art can be.