Recent changes in educational policy have placed 21st-century skills at the forefront of arts education, presenting arts educators with an opportunity to reassess instructional practices. Popular music pedagogies are approaches to learning and practicing popular music that may be useful for addressing 21st-century skills and knowledge in arts…

Place-based education incorporates local communities into school curriculum, recognizing the importance of local traditions, communities, and ecosystems, and emphasizing content that has reference to community life and local ecology. One elementary art teacher worked to connect place to her own artistic identity and to her work teaching elementary…

One of the fifth-grade art-curriculum objectives is to create a relief print. In this era of budget cuts, the author was looking for a way for her students to meet this objective by making colorful prints without using a lot of expensive printing ink. She knew she wanted to use a rainforest animal theme, as well as share the colorful art of Henri…

Researching whimsical and spirited artists can inspire new ideas and methods of communicating how art remains a valuable part of people's lives both in and out of the classroom. This instructional resource explores one such contemporary artist who, driven by a curiosity in human interaction, continues to explore the world in fanciful and…

Creativity--where does it come from? When nurturing creativity, it is necessary to have an open mind. By nurturing a creative mind, one finds that artists' ideas flow freely, so students need to look deeper into the artworks, the artists' lives, and what was behind the inspiration for the work. Imagining themselves as one of the artists they have…

Writing about the teaching artist practice should mean writing about art making. As both teacher and artist, the authors are required to be cognizant of their own art-making processes, both how it works and why it is important to them, in order to make this process visible to their students. They also need the same skills to write about how and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the Everyday Arts for Special Education (EASE) program on elementary special education students' academic achievement (reading and math) and social-emotional learning. EASE was a 5-year program providing professional development and instruction in the arts in 10 New York City special education…

Mexican printer Jose Guadalupe Posada's (1851-1913) numerous prints of "calaveras" gave vast popularity to skeleton figures through his satirical and politically critical renditions of skeletons engaged in daily activities. They are oftentimes represented in festive and playful posturing. Calaveras have now become the most original trait…

After studying the endangered species prints of Andy Warhol, and viewing several interviews with the artist, fifth-grade students were still hungry for more information about this eccentric artist, who tested every rule and broke most of them. In this article, the author describes a project using silkscreen to help students truly understand how…

During each of the holiday seasons, the author tries to come up with a lesson that will incorporate art history and have a holiday theme. One recent winter-holiday season, the author was thumbing through a catalog and saw a picture of note cards that had famous artists' stockings hanging on a mantel. This triggered an idea for the author's…

Public art takes many forms, including commemorative sculptures, site-specific works, and collaborative murals. Additionally, public art can beautify an urban environment or raise awareness of social issues. Public works of art are a form of discourse and open conversations and dialogue, helping communities work toward unity and empowerment. Using…

Anna Mary Robertson Moses, popularly known as Grandma Moses, may be the most famous American folk artist. A fortuitous combination of original vision, innate talent, spunky character, and long life, Moses is known for her landscapes that depict nostalgic views of country life. In this article, the author describes an art activity she introduced to…

Throughout history, visual artists have consciously pulled away from the mainstream hustle and bustle to concentrate, be alone and get work done. Many students in traditional school settings do not have the opportunity to experience those work conditions, given the numbers of students in a typical classroom and class period time restrictions. Even…