Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT)

Accepting applications until the program is full.

Maine College of Art’s ten-month Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program prepares artists to become effective, certified art educators.

MECA’s MAT Program emphasizes learning by doing. Our connections are vast. We work with the Greater Portland community of public and private schools, nonprofits, galleries, professional artists, and community centers. We support our teacher candidates with MECA’s vibrant visiting artist program, the Joanne Waxman Library, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and dynamic network of colleagues.

Our program is an exceptional pathway to a teaching career in visual art. For an art educator, the classroom becomes another type of studio. Artistic inspiration translate into engaged learning and expressive artmaking. MAT classes are experiential, and the learning environments are connected to teaching practice itself.

The ten-month MAT program is divided into three phases: a one-month summer intensive where theory-based courses are taught in an institute-like setting with field experiences beginning on the very first day; a fall semester of courses that include studio art, teaching methods and curriculum building, work in alternative settings, and a consideration of how to manage an inclusive classroom of students; and a spring semester that culminates with a 15-week student teaching and professional, career-readiness experience that can be completed anywhere.

Teacher candidates carry a full course load with extensive field work and supervision support in the classroom to connect theory to practice. Our program is rigorous and aligned to real-world teaching criteria. Like all artists, teacher candidates in our program are given the opportunity to take risks, develop new ideas and pedagogies, write lesson plans, and provide supportive feedback. Online portfolios document the progress being made toward reaching these high expectations for teacher preparation, and candidates participate in reflection and critique of works-in-progress for their lesson plans, papers, and their own studio artwork. There are many ways to be a great art teacher. MECA’s MAT Program helps our teacher candidates find their unique, powerful teaching voices.

The MAT program goal is to help all graduates reach full-time employment within one year of graduation. In 2019, MAT graduates had 100% job placement within three months of graduation. For the last five years, every teacher who has graduated from the MAT program wanting to teach has landed a full-time teaching job.

The rigorous ten-month schedule of dedicated, full-time learning allows candidates to complete the MAT program in time for spring and summer employment opportunities and job interviews. The program itself instills a sense of reflective practice and an in-depth knowledge of current educational practice so that graduates are prepared to start working in the field right away.

Summer: MAT 801 Fundamentals of Teaching, Learning, Creativity and Cognition; MAT 800 The Artist as Educator Experience: Art Studio Component

Fall: MAT 806 Exceptionality in the Art Classroom; MAT 809 Alternative Settings for Art Education; MAT 810 PK-8 Curriculum Design, Development, and Assessment; MAT 812 High School Curriculum Design, Development, and Assessment

Spring: MAT 832 PK-8 Student Teaching; MAT 833 High School Student Teaching; MAT 836 Professional Practices Seminar

Graduate faculty: Rachel Somerville, Interim Program Chair of Art Education, Assistant Professor; Heather Nunez-Olmstead, Adjunct Assistant Professor; Cory Bucknam, Adjunct Instructor; Alicia Uth, Adjunct Instructor

Priority deadline for summer 2021 is February 22, 2021. Rolling admissions through June 1 as space permits. Orientation is July 31, 2021 and classes start August 2, 2021.

For more information visit: meca.edu.

Contact: T 800 639 4808 / admissions [​at​] meca.edu