CANVAS

A semi-annual newsletter brought to you by the ACATE Council

VOL. 2, ISSUE 2

July 2022

The Accreditation Council for Art Therapy Education (ACATE) provides the semi-annual ACATE Canvas newsletter to inform its many stakeholders of the progress of art therapy program accreditation generally and the actions of the Council more specifically.

ACATE Welcomes Three New Council Members

On July 1, 2022, ACATE welcomed three new members to the Council:

Mary Roberts, educator

Eastern Virginia Medical School

Michelle Itczak, educator

University of Indianapolis

Eliza Homer, practitioner

Maine

ACATE Thanks Three Members and a Liaison Completing Terms

ACATE expresses its sincere appreciation to four volunteers who have provided many years of dedicated service to the Council, art therapy accreditation, art therapy education, and the art therapy profession. All are founding members of ACATE.

Craig Siegel, practitioner, Florida: Council Member 2016-2022, Treasurer, 2016-2022
Eileen Estes O’Neil, educator, University of Louisville, KY: Council Member 2016-2022, CAAHEP Commissioner 2019-2022
Seung Yeon Lee, educator, University of Long Island, NY: Council Member 2016-2022
Betsy Slagle, liaison, Florida: CAAHEP Liaison to ACATE, 2016-2022

Recent CAAHEP/ACATE Accreditation Actions

In the past six months, ACATE completed reviews of five art therapy degree programs, leading to accreditation approval for eight years by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Educations Programs (CAAHEP). CAAHEP is the parenting accrediting body for ACATE and dozens of other accreditation councils and commissions. The newly accredited master’s degree programs include:

Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado

Caldwell University, Caldwell, New Jersey

University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky

Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California

Adler Graduate School, Minnetonka, Minnesota

Congratulation to these programs. They join 20 previously accredited art therapy programs already listed on the ACATE/CAAHEP website. Five additional programs are in various stages of their review for their initial accreditation. Of these, four programs have completed their site visits and are expected to be awarded accreditation in the near future. One program has a site visit scheduled in the summer of 2022.

CAAHEP/ACATE Standards Revision Update

Ten art therapy educator experts have volunteered to help ACATE with its first Standards Revision process.

Eileen Misluk, Herron School, IUPUI
Barbara Parker-Bell, Florida State University
Natalie Carlton, Drexel University
Stephanie Wise, Marywood University
Daniel Summer, Caldwell University
Michelle Pate, Lesley University
Jill McNutt, Edgewood College
Patricia St. John, Springfield College
Ashley Hartman, Marywood University
Amy Morrison, Antioch University New England

These ten volunteers from the art therapy education community have joined ten ACATE council members to populate five standards review committees.

Sponsorship and Goals Review Committee – Standards I and II

Physical Resources and Faculty Review Committee – Standards III.A, III.B, III.D

Curriculum Review Committee – Standard III.C and Appendix B

Student Evaluation and Program Outcomes Review Committee – Standard IV

Fair Practices Review Committee – Standard V

Each of the committees completed its initial meeting in June. After completing an initial review and mark-up of the assigned standards, each review committee’s report will be submitted to the ACATE council for further discussion and mark-up. This process likely will take until the end of the calendar year 2022. When ACATE has completed its proposed mark-up of all five standards, the proposed revisions will be distributed to the art therapy communities of interest for comment.

Thank you to our Sponsoring Organization