Located in Napa, California, the Oxbow School is a 1-semester boarding program for visual arts, critical inquiry, self-discovery, and community. Oxbow's pandemic story concentrates on a series of assignments designed to help students cope with the transition to emergency online instruction amid isolation and uncertainty. The images illustrating…

To be awake means to have active attention, particularly the attention to carry a project into effect and execute a plan (Greene, 1977). Additionally, to be wide-awake requires a level of consciousness that provokes reflection and awareness in the quest for meaning, which can in turn contribute to the formation of self and ability to make sense of…

In this article, the author describes a choice-based art unit she designed for her 7th-grade students, discussing how choice impacted student motivation and how this relates to playful exploration, meaning making, and sharing. With the implementation of a personally meaningful found-object unit, students' motivation increased because of the…

With a growing societal awareness of the importance of getting students outside as part of the school day, students and teachers alike are discovering the joys of taking art class outside. Drawing on natural and built environments in their local community, many art teachers are turning to their own school gardens as a fertile site for inquiry,…

In this article, the authors reflect on their experiences of integrating visual arts, specifically painting, into an English language arts curriculum. Although each of them had previously used art as a response to literature with our students, neither of them had before collaborated with professional artists or been as intentional about…

Art therapists use pictorial image making to help patients communicate feelings through creative expression and cope with traumatic experiences through the artistic processes (Ulman, 2001). With children, art therapy is used as a way to discern their emotional states and determine their relationships to the external world (Edwards, 2008). However,…

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum launched a project, the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, with the goal of broadening the geographic representation of the Guggenheim's holdings and to create a truly global collection. Inspired by this project, this article discusses three contemporary artists: (1) Navin Rawanchaikul, from Thailand; (2)…

New understandings of drawing, emerging from the conjunction of methods and models from cognitive science and arts-based research, have important practical applications for art education and beyond. This article gives a brief account of recent drawing and cognitive research and discusses the relevance for art teachers. Through their research, the…

In this article Matthew Etherington shares his experiences, successes, and challenges in implementing a 7th-grade fashion design unit in which he attempts to realize his curricular vision through critical visual culture pedagogy and role-playing. During the 4-week lesson period, Etherington's instructional checkpoints were broken into three main…

Before high school students step outside of the classroom and bring their work into the world, educators can help them understand that art is not solely for self-expression and beauty. Art and design can enable a voice to be heard, address social issues, engage the public, and evoke critical thought. This instructional resource introduces four…

This article describes a culture-based art curriculum for preservice elementary education majors which incorporates activities through which they can explore, cultivate, and foster creativity, aesthetic awareness and self-expression through cultural awareness, understanding, representation, and identity. The author utilizes visual culture theory…

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the events that occurred at Pulse nightclub and how a social justice camp collided to create opportunities for campers, preservice teachers, and faculty mentors to use creative activities to connect community members during a time of tragedy. The author begins with a brief introduction to critical…

In an effort to facilitate an environment that values learner-centered artmaking with student-driven outcomes, the author decided to implement a unit that she researched using qualitative methods. In the unit, "Painting Without Paintbrushes," 1st-graders crafted and used nontraditional tools as paint applicators. During the unit,…

Place-based education incorporates local communities into school curriculum, recognizing the importance of local traditions, communities, and ecosystems, and emphasizing content that has reference to community life and local ecology. One elementary art teacher worked to connect place to her own artistic identity and to her work teaching elementary…

This article is about re-conceptualizing the way art is taught and what is taught, so classes do not become a distant memory. The type of teaching explored here is an educative experience that focuses on transforming shared teaching and learning experiences into a collection of artful moments to which both teacher and student may return. This…