Educators hope that the impact teaching and curriculum have on students extends far beyond the classroom, making practical connections to daily life. Powerful myths about where art happens, who participates in the art world, and the communities that judge art, however, can cause feelings of exclusion, where even formally trained artists can feel like outsiders struggling to gain access. To help students envision relationships to art that extend beyond the classroom into everyday life, it is important for students to understand themselves as creators, consumers, and critics of material culture (Bolin & Blandy, 2011); consider the many instances when artists blur boundaries with other kinds of practice (Marshall, 2010; White & Congdon, 1998); and recognize that art can enlarge and embellish ordinary events, people, and places and transform ordinary experiences (Dissanayake, 1988, 1992; Wachowiak & Clements, 2001). The idea that art exists in everyday experiences has the potential to profoundly affect the frameworks that inform students' definitions of art and democratize art knowledge and production. In this article the authors argue that study of Vernacular Art Environments (VAEs) and the experiences of their creators are paths for investigating self, home, and community as educators prepare students to be lifelong learners who engage with visual art in meaningful ways.