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…

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)

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 artist experiences the world and extracts from it elements that have worth. The study of art is a training in perception. Children should be introduced to works of quality and should be encouraged in their own artistic activity because art educates their responsiveness to values. (CS)

Examines the use of an art exhibition to help students fully develop their potential as artists. Describes how students gain new insights into their work as they prepare it for exhibition. Discusses three programs which demonstrate the value of exhibitions to school children and includes pictures of student work. (GEA)

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)

There are five categories of titles of paintings: descriptive, narrative, directive, poetic, and arbitrary. When children title their work they give clues to its intent and challenge the presuppositions that adults may bring to children's art. Titling can expand students' ideas for painting and provide a greater variety of approaches. (CS)

Argues that social science areas of anthropology and sociology should be incorporated into theory of discipline-based art education (DBAE). Questions recent art-related theory that focuses only on DBAE. Urges sociology of art along with traditional disciplines of DBAE to become more diverse in order to enjoy art to its fullest. (BR)

Describes a method used to acquaint art students with their painting subjects. The method requires students to study the subject closely and to make thumbnail sketches of details before they start to paint. Concludes that artists must observe their subjects closely to make the finished work believable. (GEA)

In times past art instruction for young children was integrated with other subject matters. Integration provides more meaningful experiences than can be achieved through separate study of narrowly defined subjects. (RM)

Asserting that elementary classroom teachers want and need specific, inexpensive, practical art projects and that art educators in teacher education should supply such projects and ensure their aesthetic and philosophical soundness, the author describes a scheme for generating a year's worth of such activities for each grade level, K-6.…

This article is written by three faculty mentors involved in Transforming Education through the Arts (TETAC), a 5-year effort to help reform five public schools in Ohio by integrating the arts into the curriculum. In this article, the authors discuss how art education can play a significant role in the PK-12 curriculum; create more demanding…

Discusses the Australian "Share the Joy" project which promotes art appreciation experiences for young children and adults in a gallery setting. Describes and reflects on the reactions of children to original art works in museums and examines the responses of children and parents to a prepared studio environment. (GEA)