An important problem for high school art teachers is deciding what belongs in the art curriculum. What works of art, media, or ideas will inspire their students to more fully develop their own artistic potential and critically engage with contemporary art and culture? What artifacts of art, visual culture, or material culture should be included…

Research on learning in the visual arts suggests that art education must be situated in compelling personal contexts if it is to succeed in creating new ways of thinking, knowing, and representing. The personal context always has cultural dimensions. This article describes a visual art curriculum that embraces the personal context of place in a…

In contemporary life and education, the local is marginalized in favor of large-scale economies of consumption that are indifferent to ecological concerns. The consequences of neglecting local human and natural communities include a degraded habitat, loss of wilderness, alienation, rootlessness, and lack of connection to communities. Critical…