How To Become An Art Educator: What It Is and Career Path

What is an art educator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Art Dobbs

An art educator, also referred to as an art teacher, is someone who teaches art topics to students. If you are interested in this role, you can find work in all levels of education, art studios, workshops, or through private clients.

The duties of an art educator typically revolve around preparing lesson plans, delivering lectures, sourcing art supplies and equipment, and providing art technique instructors according to students' skill level. Much like other types of teachers, they also grade projects, maintain progress reports, and attend PTA meetings.

For many educational institutions, the minimum requirements to become an art educator are a bachelor's degree and a teaching license. But for studios and workshops, the requirements are not so strict, as they may focus more on skill and experience than educational attainment. Either way, however, prior experience teaching art may be a prerequisite.

The national average for the salary of an art educator is $55,000 per year, with educators in secondary and tertiary levels making a slightly higher income than elementary art educators.

What general advice would you give to an Art Educator?

Art Dobbs

Principal, Tupelo High School

With today's job market, to be competitive, students must possess a variety of hard and soft skills. At Tupelo High School, we offer our students every opportunity - from Advanced Placement and Dual Credit courses to the best Career-Tech facility in the state - to succeed. When our students graduate, we know they are ready for the next step toward their future.

ScoreArt EducatorUS Average

Salary

3.2

Avg. Salary $40,421

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

4.8

Growth Rate 12%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.28%

Asian 11.25%

Black or African American 7.23%

Hispanic or Latino 10.29%

Unknown 4.95%

White 66.02%

Gender

female 73.96%

male 26.04%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress Level

4.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.7

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

8.9

Work Life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an art educator

Explore art educator education requirements

Most common art educator degrees

Bachelor's

68.6 %

Master's

21.6 %

Associate

6.0 %

Start to develop specific art educator skills

Skills	Percentages
Classroom Management	16.29%
Curriculum Development	14.39%
K-12	6.74%
Fine Arts	6.59%
Art History	4.65%

Research art educator duties and responsibilities

Lead kids through snack, game time, homework time, an art lesson, and manage a gallery wall.
Plane, develop, prepare, and implement an effective, collaborative, technology and student base language arts differentiate curriculum.
Provide portfolio evaluation and assist preparation for high school senior AP college applications.

Prepare your art educator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your art educator resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an art educator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Art Educator Resume templates

Build a professional Art Educator resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Art Educator resume.

Apply for art educator jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an art educator job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do art educators rate their job?

-/5

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Art Educator reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020

Pros

Ability to share knowledge and guide students in learning new things.

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2019