Curricula

The Institute for Education in the Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is characterized by the curricular integration of the practice of art and culture, education, and theoretical reflection. The BA program and MA program include programs in Art and Education and Design in Context (starting WS 2017/18). A degree from the Institute qualifies graduates for teaching in secondary schools. In addition, the interdisciplinary programs qualify students for creative and educative professions beyond the school context: from adult education in the fields of art and culture to independent forms of practice in the areas of art and design.

The courses offered are designed to enable students firstly to acquire interdisciplinary skills in the fine arts, purpose-oriented design and related fundamental skills in technology and media, and secondly to engage in reflection based on insights from cultural studies and the practice and theory of being an educator of art and culture. The programs provide students with extensive skills beyond teaching qualifications enabling graduates to work as cultural educators, in art and cultural studies, and in design and artistic fields.

A teacher-training program in Austria must be a combined training program of at least two school subjects. The Institute for Education in the Arts offers two subjects of study, i.e. school subjects, two of which must be chosen for one BA-program (internal combination). However, students also have the option to study just one of these subjects at the Institute and to enroll at another Austrian university for the second subject of study (external combination).

Additionally to a high school certificate, applicants for each of the BA-programs in Education in the Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna are required to pass an admission examination. Please find further information on the admission examination below.

Info on German skills required

Content of the teacher training programs "Education in the Arts"

The teacher training programs offered at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna are based on a notion of art and culture that critically reflects upon changes within society. The result is a definition of art and culture that forms a framework for cultural expression and social production to be mutually dependent. Art and culture are considered as a locus to be inhabited, something to be negotiated, comparable to a language that constitutes and reconstitutes itself and its speakers as it is used. On a methodological level, this is manifested by the combination of cultural production, reflection, and communication. Within this context, cultural production stands for the ability to articulate one's creative ideas, which contains - without being limited to - the notion of art; cultural reflection is the capability of understanding and embedding artistic, creative, and social action in discursive contexts; and communication is the principle of dialogue whereby art and culture are conveyed, a principle which is defined by interaction with a variety of target groups and formats.

While the teacher training programs Art and Education and Design in Context are each focused on different aspects of cultural activities, they are also integrative in nature. The mutual interrelatedness in diversity aims at breaking with historical conventions determining artistic practice and cultural education both within schools and elsewhere. Specifically, this means that everyday culture is increasingly integrated into the thematic fields and practical forms of art, design, fashion, architecture, urban life, and textile practice. In this context, everyday culture refers to a wide range of expressions of life, both urban and rural, connected as much with pop, style, and practices of resistance as with popular culture and rituals of adaptation, and equally well versed in new technologies and old craft traditions.