The Art Education Center at James Madison University, founded in 2000, serves as a common voice for the advancement of art education in the university community and local school districts. The programs support the National Art Standards and the Virginia Standards of Learning for Visual Art (SOL's). To carry out it's mission, the Center provides undergraduate and graduate programs in art education, seminars, lectures, community activities, art education research, and summer art programs for students and adults.

JMU Art Education programs are grounded on the belief that the role of the arts in learning is fundamental to language acquisition, creative thinking, and an educated imagination. While each of the arts are unique in expression, all of the arts communicate important ideas about humanity that may be integrated throughout the K-12 curriculum.