Hello! Currently, I am studying Art Education, and plan to teach in NY state. To teach in NY you are required to have a master’s degree. I am a sophomore in college and trying to plan ahead. I have developed a love for nature and would love to somehow tie that into my grad studies. Are there any degrees that combine art and nature? I would love to do something related to teaching about making art with natural resources such as making paint from berries, dyes from flowers, weaving from natural fibers found in the woods, etc. Even if there is not anything like that, is there anything else worth looking into that could compliment Art Education? Or even just a degree specialized in teaching children about nature?
I would aim to think of more abstract ways to pair these together.
First, consider going to a university/program that is located in a rural area. The SUNY campuses in New Paltz, Oswego, and Potsdam all offer master’s degrees in art education, and you can enjoy nature in all of those regions of New York in different ways.
There are programs in environmental/outdoor recreation (like this one at SUNY Cortland: http://www2.cortland.edu/graduate-programs/recreation/environmental-and-outdoor-education). A related field is leisure studies. But those don’t lead to accreditation and teaching positions in public schools. Generally, people who want to do that stuff may teach in camps or specialized education programs, museums, or perhaps at national or state parks and other recreational outdoor areas.
Education about making artists’ supplies from natural resources is probably going to be found in individual continuing education courses. There’s no reason you can’t incorporate that into your art education process in schools (in fact, a lot of schools would welcome the link between science and art). But you’re unlikely to find a whole master’s degree in it - you’d have to find places where you could learn those skills, then figure out how to integrate them into your art education curriculum using the skills you learned in the education program.