Abstract
This article investigates the relationship between art education and religion in the Islamic world, through field work in the Republic of Maldives. The investigation was based on an ethnographic approach which mainly involved classroom observations and interviews with Muslim teachers. While there were no notable instances indicating the relationship between art education and Islam found in the classroom observations, more insight was gained in the interviews with Muslim teachers. The interviews revealed not only that the teachers had a negative understanding of sensitivity in representing figures, but that there was a positive relationship between art education and Islam. These teachers gave value to their art classes by finding the link between their beliefs and art education, although the classes themselves seemed totally secular. The findings in the article provide new information which will become a basis for developing art education adapted to Islam.
