While artists and academics have produced a wide range of work trying to understand national and individual identity, very little has been written about the experiences of student artists as they work to make sense of their particular political, social, and artistic identities and put them to work in the world. This article takes up that question,…

Ideas are starting points-for thought, discussion, reading, viewing, writing, and making. The two "brainstorms on paper" presented in this article illustrate how taking an idea and examining it from an artistic point of view can generate thematic starting points to help teachers and students connect the visual arts to ideas that ripple across the…

Last year these authors addressed an issue in these pages that echoed Linda Nochlin 's (1971) haunting question, "Why have there been no great women artists?" (Clark, Folgo, & Pichette, 2005). That essay examined the question, "Have there now been any great women artists?" through a study of art history textbooks primarily written for college…

This tongue-in-cheek article calls for the critical reexamination of the history of modern art. The author believes that modern art is neither an extension of the Renaissance aesthetic nor a collective by-product of artists possessed of creative genius. Creators of modern art were actually representational artists suffering from visual stuttering.…

Artemis is a late Hellenistic Greek marble sculpture of the huntress, running in a flowing garment, now lacking arms, legs, and head, and about three-quarters life-sized. The llama is a remarkable hollow male figure of smooth thin gold, and about two inches tall, and was made by the Inca before the Spanish conquest in 1532. This narrative is just…

Presents Efland's reply to Charles Dorn's article (November 1981) in which Dorn argues that the goal of an art curriculum incorporating studio work, art history, and criticism has not been realized and is undesirable. Efland supports school art curricula which integrates history and criticism with real-world applications. (AM)

Notes that educators often view art as an intellectually shallow, mechanical process. Describes Sir Joshua Reynolds's concept of invention as the intellectual combination of placing the painter's mental picture of actions, expressions, and characters on canvas. Calls for educators to stress intellectual qualities of art in order to develop…

Discusses the advantages of academic games and simulations in art education. Provides information on developing academic games and simulations and includes an example. Concludes that these strategies not only broaden the range of instructional approaches, but enhance the learning that results from the study of art. (GEA)

Rather than just being a study of past art works, art history can also be a study of process in which students learn about describing, attributing, reconstructing, and interpreting art. Sheet music is suggested as a possible resource to develop these skills. (IS)

Presented are four possible content bases for art programs, with an expanded discussion of one of them--the anthropological base, which is described as the study of artistic origins. (KC)

Five reasons art education is important for all students are discussed. They are: (1) art as basic education, (2) creativity, (3) aesthetic experience, (4) art appreciation, and (5) historical understanding. (RM)

Finding "aesthetic experience" to be a difficult and paradoxical concept, the author argues that a social as well as an historical perspective may be a more beneficial route for the future of art programs in our schools. (Author/SJL)

The author challenges certain curricular conceptions, based on aesthetic discourse, professional occupational descriptions, and instrumentalist social applications which he believes have hindered the development and integration of art critical and historical education into the high school studio art program. (Author/SJL)

One source of materials for art education historical research, which has barely been tapped in the United States, is ephemera, casual bits of handwritten and printed paper used in daily life. These circulated images and documents convey actual practices, commitments, and attitudes of people. (IS)

Reviews gender-related issues that might arise as students are introduced to women's art achievements. Divides women's art into mainstream art and "hiddenstream" art, or art represented by work in textiles, ceramics, and miscellaneous art forms. Includes a chart which shows the name and nationality of over 90 female artists working between 1390…