For this Instructional Resource, the author interviewed contemporary sculptor Michael Beitz, who uses art to explore the role of designed objects in human communication and emotional experience. This column was written in response to calls for using Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas (National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, 2013; Stewart &…

Art educators and administrators allowed a project to evolve based on the "street life" experiences of ordinarily invisible people. The goal was to create a space or number of spaces for celebrating the human spirit through art, music, dance, poetry, theater, and story while also providing a forum for exploring some of the social issues affecting…

Room M219 of Tucson's Catalina High School feels more like a hip design shop or bustling photography studio than an advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) class. Printouts of photographs lie scattered amidst rows of computers. Fingers dash across keyboards and images flash onto monitors as students review their own work. One would never guess…

In this article, the author describes that teaching students how to unlock the color of white is his passion. Like so many other art teachers, he struggled for years teaching color wheels and making value scales, only to be frustrated when students produced colorful charts and then made colorless paintings. He was teaching students how to mix…

In painting and drawing classes, it is typical to ask students to work directly from a master. It is one way to study composition techniques, and to become familiar with classical style firsthand. In museums, easels are set up as artists work, not in an attempt to copy or plagiarize, but in an attempt to be part of history by participating in it.…

A student sketchbook is not a new idea. However, the appropriate application and assessment capabilities of the sketchbook are often overlooked. Historically, artists were trained via copying the works of master painters and draftsmen. In the same tradition, the author has infused the art curriculum with sketchbook copying exercises to improve…

In this article, the author describes how she conducts her art classes. She relates that she begins all of her classes by asking prompting questions and presenting basic information such as a definitions of art terminologies to her students. The author believes in brainstorming with her students, an effective way for creating a dialog with her…

An educator with a serious interest in incorporating critical thinking into a school curriculum might feel the need to be an expert in critical thinking simply to evaluate the many existing approaches which bear that name. Furthermore, this problem would seem to be compounded if critical thinking and the creation of art were asserted to be…