NASAD Accreditation

• Resources from the NASAD Website
• What role does NASAD play in education?
• How do I discover which schools are best for me?
• How should I best prepare to enter an art/design school, college, or university as an art/design major?

NASAD is an association of approximately 240 schools of art and design, primarily at the collegiate level, but also including precollegiate and community schools for the visual arts disciplines.

It is the national accrediting agency for art and design and art and design-related disciplines.

The Association also provides information to the public. It produces statistical research, provides professional development for leaders of art and design schools, and engages in policy analysis.

Public Information

NASAD provides information to the general public about accreditation and its relationship to educational programs in art and design. All published documents of the Association are available to the public.

Purposes

The National Association of Schools of Art and Design was established in 1944 to improve educational practices and maintain high professional standards in art and design education.

A general statement of aims and objectives follows:

• To establish a national forum to stimulate the understanding and acceptance of the educational disciplines inherent in the visual arts in higher education in the United States.
• To establish reasonable standards centered on the knowledge and skills necessary to develop academic and professional competence at various program levels.
• To foster the development of instruction of the highest quality while simultaneously encouraging varied and experimental approaches to the teaching of art and design.
• To evaluate, through the process of accreditation, schools of art and design and programs of studio art and design instruction in terms of their quality and the results they achieve, as judged by experienced examiners.
• To assure students and parents that accredited art and design programs provide competent teachers, adequate plant and equipment, sound curricula, and are capable of attaining their stated objectives.
• To counsel and assist schools in developing their programs and to encourage self-evaluation and continuing studies toward improvement.
• To invite and encourage the cooperation of professional art and design groups and individuals of reputation in the field of art and design in the formulation of appropriate curricula and standards.
• To establish a national voice to be heard in matters pertaining to the visual arts, particularly as they would affect member schools and their stated objectives.