MA in Kunst, Bildung und Gemeindepraxis

Art, Education, and Community Practice

Join our community of socially engaged artists/designers, educators, creative activists, and community organizers working together to create critical interventions that inspire dialogue and catalyze social change through the arts. This work connects art and social justice, grounded in the pedagogy of hope and possibility. Our intimate and interdisciplinary program balances theory and practice through classroom projects enacted in public spaces and in partnership with local organizations. Through course work, we explore the history and political context of socially engaged art and popular education, as well as creative strategies for activism and organizing. The capstone project provides an opportunity to design, implement, and document an artistic intervention in public space or to work with a community organization in an effort to enact social transformation.

Our program is flexible, encouraging students to take courses with our affiliated faculty from across the different schools at New York University and other relevant courses taught by esteemed NYU faculty. We leverage our unique location in the Lower East Side and New York City, home to artists and activist, by bringing in activist artists to our classrooms to work with students and explore how art can be used as a tool to open dialogue about a community’s history, culture, and social needs. Our graduates go on to work as artists, educators, and administrators in community-based organizations and cultural institutions, as well as K-12 schools and colleges.

Classes are small and personal attention is given to each student throughout the duration of the program, from initial advisement through completion of the master's capstone project.

The program can be completed in as little as 3 semesters or 12 months, as a full-time student. The program can also be completed as a part-time student in two years.

Admission in Fall and Spring.

About NYU Steinhardt

NYU Steinhardt's one-of-a-kind integration of education, health, the arts, and media studies puts us at the heart of a movement: education for social change.

Steinhardt students are passionate about helping others.

Our mission is to advance knowledge, creativity, and innovation at the crossroads of culture, education, and human development. We exemplify NYU’s commitment to be of public service.

Our academic programs are ranked among the country's best.

NYU Steinhardt's master's programs in applied psychology, education, health, media, music and performing arts professions, and the arts and arts professions attract recent college graduates, established professionals seeking licensure or certification, and career changers. Our curriculum gives our students the opportunity to study abroad and experience hands-on learning.

Advanced certificate programs allow you to pursue study in specialized areas of applied psychology, education, music and performing arts, and physical therapy.

We also offer PhD programs that prepare graduates for careers in academic research and teaching, as well as professional doctoral programs for advanced practice in education fields, the arts, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.

We're redefining holistic education.

Our students belong to a strong and supportive community of scholars – a warm, nurturing environment that encourages the exploration of new ideas. Our faculty lead in their professional fields and collaborate across academic disciplines: teachers working with psychologists and health professionals, musicians with speech pathologists, educators with visual artists. They work with students to research topics like the effects of immigration on learning, childhood nutrition, and obesity, and how digital media is transforming social relationships. Our research institutes impact scholarship and policies around the globe.

At Steinhardt, learning takes place in and out of the classroom.

For more than a century, we’ve been building partnerships in our community: with local schools, families, community agencies, arts organizations, cultural institutions, and healthcare facilities. A Steinhardt education consists of rigorous classroom study as well as interning at New York City’s top media companies, clinical placements at renowned hospitals, or student teaching in one of the world’s most diverse school systems. It means unrivaled opportunities for professional training and career advancement.

We prepare you to lead in a global society.

Like the city, we call home, our faculty, students, and staff represents an extensive range of backgrounds, viewpoints, and perspectives. And though our roots go deep in New York, our work at home is influencing – and influenced by – our connections abroad. Every day, Steinhardt graduates continue to change the world.

NYU's International Rankings

• #7 – US News & World Report, Best Graduate Schools in Education
• #27 – Times Higher Education World University Rankings
• #29 – Academic Ranking of World Universities
• #52 – QS World University Rankings

School Timeline

Founded in 1890 as the School of Pedagogy, NYU Steinhardt was the first professional school devoted to teacher education to be established at an American university. The School's early mission was to educate school administrators and prepare men and women for work in colleges of teacher education. By 1921, the School was educating teachers at all levels and across all fields, including the arts and health, offering undergraduate through doctoral degrees. As the education field expanded, the School broadened its focus to incorporate new knowledge and scientific developments, and new programs emerged.