Position Statement on Achieving an Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Visual Arts Education Profession

NAEA values equity, diversity, inclusion, and access in visual arts and design education and is committed to cultivating a more vibrant learning community that is richly diverse, inclusive, and open to all. As the premier professional learning association for visual arts education, NAEA believes that proactively and intentionally nurturing, recruiting, and retaining future arts educators from a wide range of backgrounds will contribute to organizational vibrancy and make the field stronger by representing a full spectrum of professionals. Diversity among educators within the profession acquaints learners with cultures and perspectives different from their own and disrupts a homogeneous voice.

Visual arts education professionals must play a more active role in bringing about social transformation to help remove barriers and overcome institutionalized oppression and inequities that have been historically pervasive within our profession. Inequities should be replaced with accessible means for all to thrive.

NAEA celebrates the role that a diverse workforce plays in effective and transformative visual arts teaching and learning. Therefore, NAEA is committed to providing resources to assist art education research and teaching pedagogies. Further, NAEA is dedicated to promoting diverse voices and viewpoints that inform professional praxis for social change toward imagining and shaping a more equitable future.

[Note: This Position Statement was formerly entitled “Position Statement on Attracting Diversity into the Profession”.]*