This article begins with a synopsis of the film "Edward Burtynsky: Manufactured Landscapes", directed by Jennifer Baichwal. While the author can relate to the statements made in this synopsis, her experience and understanding of this 90-minute journey is much more intense and complex. In this essay, she attempts to dissect and examine…

The arts disciplines (visual arts, music, theatre, and dance) merit and require formal study. Policy makers should support studies in the arts as core disciplines, as specified in the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)," the federal legislation that sets policy and appropriations for public education. The arts merit and…

Visual culture is a hot topic in art education right now as some teachers are dedicated to teaching it and others are adamant that it has no place in a traditional art class. Visual culture, the author asserts, can include just about anything that is visually represented. Although people often think of visual culture as contemporary visuals such…

A walk down Main Street can be very much like a stroll through a museum gallery--visually rich, inviting unexpected choices, aesthetically rewarding. This article explores the concept of shop windows as visually ordered compositions, much like paintings and other art objects, and suggests some approaches to applying this concept in teaching a…

The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) curriculum and teaching method uses art to help students think critically, listen attentively, communicate, and collaborate. VTS has been proven to enhance reading, writing, comprehension, and creative and analytical skills among students of all ages. The origins and procedures of the VTS curriculum are…

Maintains that an anthropological perspective offers exciting possibilities for developing intercultural understanding in the visual arts. Examines the problems encountered when applying this perspective to the visual art of radically different cultures. (JDH)

Metaphoric interpretation of art serves different purposes in art education and psychotherapy. These differences are discussed in the context of categories of art criticism adapted from E. B. Feldman's work. Practical guidelines are presented to help art teachers use metaphoric interpretation and maintain the boundary between education and…

Discusses the relationship of visual art and language as modes of communication. Words are cumulative in effect, while visual images communicate more directly. Art education provides students with a means of interpreting and evaluating visual images. (AM)

Discusses the potential for cooperation between schools and art museums and examines the use of visual materials in the classroom. Surveys show that teachers normally use nonprint visual materials only to make their classrooms attractive or to illustrate information. Museum experiences can enrich student visual imagery and appreciation of art. (AM)

For many art educators, the word "technology" conjures up visions of overhead projectors and VCRs, video and digital cameras, computers equipped with graphic programs and presentation software, digital labs where images rendered in pixels replace the debris of charcoal dust and puddled paints. One forgets that visual literacy and technology have…

This paper presents a discussion of the use of microcomputers and computer graphics programs as basic design experiences which relate as much to the right as to the left side of the brain. It reviews selected research in art education that shows the importance of the right brain in various areas of creative behavior and in developing drawing…

Beardsley's explanation of how works of art have the capacity to give an aesthetic character to human experience provides a justification for art education in the schools. His major work, "Aesthetics," and subsequent writings that have a bearing on art education are discussed. (Author/RM)

Visual literacy contains a vat of underlying understanding that fuses to the bones of students who actively pursue an art education. For everything visible, there is an invisible internal counterpart, and arts education provides vital depth that is currently being drained from Canadian culture. Visual literacy begins with the elements and…

Highlighting many of the author's own experiences as an artist and an art instructor, this paper laments the problem of visual ignorance among contemporary children and proposes a course in basic visual literacy. Such a course would teach form and content as interactive and synergistic concepts rather than as separate attributes. Students could…

Asserts that visual literacy will increase in importance as mass communication continues to exploit the use of images as the basic conveyors of information. Explores the role of visual literacy and art production in discipline-based art education. (JDH)