You may recognize her as the formidable Mariah Dillard in Netflix's Marvel series Luke Cage or from popular films like 12 Years a Slave. Alfre Woodard is an award-winning actor on stage and screen, but her work behind the scenes as an arts education advocate is equally notable. As a mentoring artist for the Kennedy Center's Turnaround Arts…

Media arts has been familiar to many through television, film, and digital graphics, and often appears as an extension of the four traditional arts disciplines: music, arts, theatre, and dance. As media arts continues to acquire its own unique identity, particularly through technological means, it has been included as a stand-alone discipline in…

The grammar of creative practices is described by George Steiner as the "articulate organisation of perception, reflection and experience, the nerve structure of consciousness when it communicates with itself and with others." Steiner's description of creative grammar is consistent with Lev Vygotsky's comment that "art is the social within us, and…

In this article, the author describes her experience with her daughter, Grace, who always had an interest in art. She states that being the parent of a child who has talent in an area that is not one's own can be daunting. Here, she stresses the importance of understanding the unique developmental path of each child. Some students show their…

Contemporary Native arts are rarely included in global arts settings that highlight any number of other disenfranchised artists seeking to gain recognition and a voice in the form of critical exhibition practice or scholarship. This article argues that Native artists can benefit from an increased participation in these broader arts networks, given…

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…

Nothing says "the sixties" like the word "revision," and, in keeping with those times, the fledgling feminist art movement dismissed hard-won mastery as "mere skill" and snubbed the canon of Western art as evidence of male dominion over the criteria for legitimacy and achievement. In debunking the myth of the Great (male) Artist, the women's…

Body adornment and decoration have long been a part of human history. Cultures around the world have found ways to add elements to the human form to enhance beauty. Recently the author has noticed an increase in body piercing and tattooing. He finds himself, as an artist/teacher, asking if there is an aesthetic element he might be missing. In this…

In a world rich with people, places, things and ideas, all inter-engaged in impossibly complex ways, the question of where individuals direct their attention, and how they organize themselves to understand what they are experiencing is a question that is difficult to answer. In this article, the author suggests that the openings arts-based…

The "all-over" abstract canvases that Jackson Pollock produced between 1943 and 1951 present a pedagogical challenge in how to account for their apparently chaotic structure. One reason that they are difficult to teach about is that they have proved notoriously difficult for art historians to come to terms with. This is undoubtedly a consequence…

Kevin Tavin has boldly gone where few would dare--to challenge the usefulness of one of the most cherished ideas in art education, that of aesthetics. The author believes that three of Tavin's arguments are completely sound: What is often offered as an entirely unproblematic idea is deeply implicated in historical repression, art education's…

In this article, the author analyzes Arthur Efland's "Art and Cognition," which advocates study of the visual arts for its cognitive benefits. The author argues that Efland's cognitive premises are largely sound but that his specific recommendations often belie the general principles he espouses. Efland focuses on the interpretation of baffling…

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) has much to teach about arts education. However, the first question that many today might ask is, Should we listen to him at all? Wordsworth, some members of the postmodern academy have determined, was a bad man. He was unkind to his family and friends, they say, and they are uncomfortable with the politics he…

The "Adding Insult to Imagery? Artistic Responses to Censorship and Mass-Media" exhibition opened in January 16, 2006, Kipp Gallery on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus. Eleven gallery-based works, 9 videos, and 10 web-based artworks comprised the show; each dealt with the relationship between censorship and mass mediated…

Schools have always been subject to an overwhelming variety of socio-political demands, which shift in response to the political climate--impacting art education in different ways. The current debate on social and political issues in art education is not new. Beginning with McFee (1966), and particularly since the 1970s, there has been a growing…