Michael Prater
Associate Professor of Art Education
Michael Prater teaches Visual Art Education for undergraduates and graduates.
He has a B.A. in Graphic Design from Missouri Southern State College, an M.A. in Studio Arts with emphases in Drawing, Painting, and Ceramics from Pittsburg State University, and a Ph.D. in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Visual Arts Education from Texas Tech University. Starting at Ball State University in 1995 as a contract faculty to teach art appreciation courses,
Michael accepted the tenure-track position in Visual Arts Education in 1996 and was tenured in 2004. Currently Michael teaches all art education courses as the only Art Education faculty member, teaching AED 201 Introduction to Art Education, AED 304 Curriculum Design, AED 305 Elementary Art Teaching Practicum (Saturday School), AED 399 Secondary Methods in Art Education, ART 601 Teaching Studio Art graduate seminar, and the ART 290 Basic Art Media and Techniques course for non-majors. Michael also sometimes teaches art studio classes in the School of Art Foundation core, primarily AFA 101 Drawing Studio, ADS 101 2D Design, and AFA 202 Figure Drawing. He is also the advisor for most Art Ed honors projects and independent studies, and also advises the BSU Student Art Ed Club (student chapter of the NAEA).
Michael has won multiple Ball State University awards for teaching and in 2014 was awarded the Ball State University Excellence in Teaching (EXIT) Award for innovative teaching and in 2006 was awarded the Art Educator of the Year Award for Higher Education from the Art Education Association of Indiana (AEAI). He has also won multiple art exhibition awards over the years for his artworks, most recently winning the Best of Show award for the 2022 Open Spaces: Art About the Land Exhibition by the Red-Tail Nature Conservancy and the Minnetrista Museum, for his charcoal drawing Warm Summer Night.
His research as an art educator deals primarily with practical teaching strategies in support of the Discipline-Based Art Education curriculum model. His classroom methods for teaching studio art, art criticism and aesthetics have been published in nationally published journals such as School Arts and Art Education. As an artist, Michael works primarily with charcoals on paper. For the last few years has been involved in a series of images that bring together his interests in drawing the figure, antique photography, and the early days of science fiction, as well as a series of portraits that demonstrate his interest in dramatic lighting and the figure.
