Art education is characterized by the consolidated interplay of diverse fields of study: specialist knowledge, authentic experience with art and educationally motivated action coalesce to form far-reaching competence for teaching and learning. Specific interests focus on the history and functions of art, the phenomena of contemporary art, aesthetics and theories of media, aesthetic learning, concepts of art education and related history. Special attention is devoted to understanding analogue and digital picture cultures. Practical sectors are graphics, painting, sculpture, new media.
Keynotes of the scientific area are research of everyday cultures, above all youth culture, women's art education, extracurricular occupational fields. In addition to the relevant historical collections new archives are established, for example a youth culture archive and an "aesthetic memory" of the university (interior architecture archive, F. Kramer). Contacts and exchanges with foreign art colleges further the debate on different concepts of art and education. The Institute's exhibition hall augments the scientific discourse by presentations of current art.
In recent years the occupational field of the art educationalist has extended far beyond the traditional area of the school. New extracurricular fields include: adult education, cultural activities, art therapy and rehabilitation, museum pedagogics, print media, publishing and literature, multi-media agencies, leisure and tourism, art societies, children's museums, TV and radio stations, general art and exhibition studies, facilities for life's third phase, youth art education. A five-week practical course during studies has a guiding and initiating function.