CONNECTICUT ART EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, INC. 

Description, Goals, and Objectives

The Connecticut Art Education Association, Inc. is a professional organization which represents the art teachers of the state. Its goals include promoting visual arts as an essential component of educational programs, improving the conditions of teaching art, and sharing and encouraging effective teaching practices in art education. To support these goals, CAEA has sponsored public discussions, institutes, conferences, and special programs for public and private school art teachers, and art education students and faculty at Connecticut colleges and universities. A newsletter is published to keep the membership informed of state and national art educational issues, student and teacher accomplishments, exhibits, and other sponsored projects. The newsletter, known as Visions, is published and distributed to the membership in Fall, Winter, and Spring of each year. CAEA members publish articles, reports, surveys, and curriculum information to encourage and promote curriculum development and assessment. These concerns are addressed each year at the annual professional development activity, the Fall Conference, which is organized to include expert speakers and workshops on a variety of topics of interest to art teachers throughout the state.

The Connecticut Art Education Association, Inc. is a state affiliate of the National Art Education Association, and is represented on the board of the Connecticut Alliance for Arts Education. March has been designated as Youth Art Celebration, during which time local and state-wide exhibits and activities promote the value of art education in the schools and in the community. For this reason, and to encourage secondary students to submit their artwork for juried exhibition, CAEA is a major sponsor of the Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards program. Since the purpose of the Association is to be a non-profit education organization, it shall only engage in activities consistent with its status as defined in the Internal Revenue Code, under code section 501(C)(3).

The Connecticut Art Education Association is a non-profit organization that has seven clear goals:

1. High school graduation requirement in the Arts.  (Such a requirement could also provide a window of opportunity for growing dance and theater programs)
2. Fill the state visual arts consultant position, which has been vacant for more than 10 years.
3. Replace the current #110 "Unique Endorsement" (miscellaneous) category of certification offered for dance and theatre with formal dance and theatre certification, similar to that already available in Visual Arts and Music.
4. Include arts- and media-rich items in CMT and CAPT tests. (The arts need to be in our assessments.  Currently there are a few arts educators on the CAPT interdisciplinary writing committee.)
5. Collect data about the status of arts education in our state.  (The 1999-2000 State of the Arts survey has been used widely by teachers, but needs to be repeated soon, so that we can have current data and monitor our progress over the past several years. There is receptivity in the education department to doing so. ) 
6. Fund the Connecticut's Summer Arts Institute. (Close to 10 % of the state's arts teachers have attended past workshops. Other states commit a portion of their professional development funding to arts education; Connecticut should do the same.)
7. Fund an endowment to promote Visual Arts Education by certified Visual Arts teachers in the state of Connecticut.

If you want to get involved with any of these issues or want to take more of a leadership role in the Art in Connecticut, join us at CAEA to shape the future of Arts Education in Connecticut. The children of Connecticut thank you for your participation. Click here for find out more.