Locating visual arts education in a post-liberal arts landscape

Abstract

This article explores the current climate and location of visual arts at post-secondary institutions in a growing post-liberal arts climate in the United States. It discusses the future of visual and liberal arts education in a socio-political climate that appears to value career-ready degrees and profit over scholarship and the cerebral, emotive and visceral importance of education and the arts. The history of conservative efforts to remake post-secondary education and government efforts to defund it are discussed, providing context for the shift to a post-liberal arts landscape. A growing divide and class separation are investigated as an outcome of the efforts made to de-liberalize colleges and universities and defund educational assistance programmes, potentially placing it in the hands of the upper class and out of the hands of the middle and lower classes.