Describes ways that aesthetic theories can be integrated into children's art education. The author illustrates elements of E.H. Gombrich's theory of aesthetic perception using as examples art activities designed to increase student awareness of their "mental sets" and their understanding of how mental sets influence visual perception. (AM)

The author discusses the role of the visual arts in helping people deal creatively with their struggles while enhancing their creative abilities. Lists of media, materials, techniques, events, names of artists, art careers, and modes of expression are included. (CL)

Discusses five guiding principles (from scholars' work in semiotics) for helping teachers explore the arts and literacy instruction, intended as a framework for understanding representation of meaning, in whatever sign system or art form. Discusses why understanding semiotic systems is important to language arts instruction that represents meaning…

The first thing a visitor notices when entering Hollytree primary school is the art-work displayed on every wall. This paper, based on a three-year ethnographic study of the school, mobilizes field notes and interview and photographic data to probe the meanings of this visual "display". We argue that the walls (re)produce and promote…

The push for academic electives has grown over the years for many reasons. The pressure for high test scores has forced schools to focus on literacy and core content areas. The competition for entrance to four-year universities has grown, too. However, in the race to improve academic offerings and raise test scores, some schools have neglected to…

In this article, the author reflects back to when he was in fifth grade, when his teacher taught the class to bake bread in school. It was November, and baking bread tied into the lesson. His teacher and some open-minded parents and students knew that to bake, sew, paint, sing, play an instrument, or dance as part of a lesson for a math class,…

This is a collection of essays on the arts and urban development. Included are the following articles: (1) "The Arts and Urban Development" by James L. Shanahan; (2) "Cultural Policy and Intra-Urban Development" by Richard Raymond and Michael Sesnowitz; (3) "The Vague World of the Arts and Urban Development," by Bruce Seaman; (4) "Business…

An interview between a professor of art education and a special education teacher focuses on art's contribution to special education, specifically in terms of a puppet experience. (CL)

Describes the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Awards in Arts Education which awards up to $10,000 to public schools that operate effective, high-quality arts programs. (JOW)

Activities involving photographs stimulate visual perceptual awareness. Children understand visual stimuli before having verbal capacity to deal with the world. Vision becomes the primary means for learning, understanding, and adjusting to the environment. Photography can provide an effective avenue to visual literacy. (Author)

Discusses the usefulness of instant cameras with all ages of students and in all subject areas. (SJL)

The author discusses the nature of graffiti and suggests ways of understanding it and combatting it--by the use of murals, vines, shrubbery, and designed-in barriers. (KC)

Discusses a number of different approaches to theme study or thematic units and various ways in which the arts can be included. (SR)

On September 12, 2001, the Techniques in Art Therapy class in the art therapy program at Albertus Magnus College met at its normal Wednesday evening time. This article describes the class session through the words and images of several class members who found the class useful in their own process of beginning to deal with the attacks and their…

This article argues that it is possible to look at children's texts in relation to the lens of literacy events and practices from the New Literacy Studies, and apply this perspective to an understanding of creativity. Teachers can then use the possibilities within a text to ask children different kinds of questions. Drawing on a 2-year…