This study aims to determine the interest and attitudes of university students, who are receiving art education, towards Performance Art, which holds an important place within contemporary art. The study group consists of a total of 11 students, 3 males and 8 females, who were studying in the Department of Painting Education, Faculty of Fine Arts Education at Gazi University during the spring semester of the 2015-2016 academic year. In this study, a quantitative research design was used, and data were collected through a pre-survey, a post-survey, and a satisfaction survey. A 20-item Likert-type scale was designed to evaluate students' attitudes towards the Performance Art course, and students were asked to rate each item on a 5-point scale. The content validity of the scales was ensured by expert opinions, reliability coefficients were calculated, and a pilot application was conducted at the beginning of the study to test the applicability of the scales. The analysis of the research data was carried out using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and correlation analysis with the SPSS program. As a result of the analyses, a significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test results regarding students' attitudes towards performance art; this difference indicates that the Performance Art course positively affected students' interest and attitudes. The results were compared with the existing literature and interpreted, and recommendations were included based on the findings obtained at the end of the study.
Keywords: Art Education, Performance Art, Contemporary Art