Sarah Mostow was hired to provide professional development to a group of 10 elementary art teachers who worked at a charter school network in New York City. Searching for what she could offer the charter school teachers, who possessed diverse backgrounds and teaching styles, she wanted to find a structure they could adapt. She decided to distill…

Natural materials provide children opportunities for artistic engagement, which encourages a dialogue between children and material and provides a platform for children to discuss their perspectives on significant issues like sustainable futures. This article examines the land art characters created by pre-primary education children in the garden…

The practices of artists and the field of artistic production is an iterative space--a rapidly evolving network of ideas and dialogic strategies, as well as collaborative and interdisciplinary practices. Artists function at the intersection of many disciplines as researchers, activists, and problem solvers. These practices provide an imperative to…

With its ambient, interesting and dynamic use of materials, alternative views of materials and objects, with its playfulness and affecting different senses contemporary fine art can be very interesting for art-educational work. Due to its complexity, however, it suffers from misunderstanding, retreat, and last but not least also fears both among…

Just as students should leave their Foundational year of art with a beginning sense of composition, color, value, and materials, so should they be cultivating their creative capacities. With the equipment exercised and the waters tested, students will be prepared to continue their journey; for it is the interplay of personal experience, social…

In this article, I examine strategies for teaching students to make socially conscious art using a variety of media that emphasizes installation work. I present issues of social justice in the contemporary art world and include concerns of censorship that artists sometimes confront. I offer examples of team taught coordinated studies programs…

The best lesson ideas often derive from childhood recollections. When brought to class, play memories and art mementos from the teacher's childhood paint a powerful homage to children's art. A survey of a child's room in the dark, or with lights on, discloses interesting hanging sites, means of attachment and unusual items drafted for hanging, all…

The author teaches techniques to focus students on shape and value, but wanted to challenge advanced art students with an activity that would be difficult yet equally rewarding. In this article, the author describes an art project wherein students made photorealistic self-portraits using newspaper.

Printmaking has always been one of the author's favorite units to teach. The beauty of the subject is that a process exists for every grade level from kindergarten through 12, and in the lower grades, much of what is used can be inexpensive or donated discards. This article describes how fifth-grade students made polyfoam printing.

The textiles of Africa are rich with possibilities for art lessons. With their unique balance of color, pattern, symmetry and repetition, they lend themselves to exciting art lessons with cultural significance. Asante cloth--or Kente cloth, as it is commonly known--is a perfect example. These rich, colorful repeat patterns from Ghana are woven in…

In the supervisory relationship, the use of expressive arts activities has proven to be beneficial to students. Using art materials, students often discover new ways of understanding complex cases and grow personally. Through the art activities, unconscious material is made conscious and then that material is open to processing with the…

Using works of art with young children is a perfect way to bridge the gap between art activities that are too open or too closed. Teachers of young children sometimes try to find a middle ground by allowing free painting time at an easel in addition to recipe-oriented activities such as putting together precut shapes to create a spider or an apple…

Rainforest reptiles and amphibians are a vibrantly colored, multimedia art experience. To complete the entire project one may need to dedicate many class periods to production, yet in each aspect of the project a new and important skill, concept, or element is being taught or reinforced. This project incorporates the study of warm and cool color…

Abstraction has long been a concept difficult to define for students. Students often feel the pressure of making their artwork "look real" and frustration can often lead to burnout in the classroom. In this article, the author describes how her lesson on abstraction has alleviated much of that pressure as students created an abstract acrylic…

This article describes why art educators might consider studying material forms from everyday life, presents suggestions for exploring them in an art classroom, and includes an example to illustrate teaching about an object of material culture. The author presents reasons for studying material culture in the art classroom and offers suggestions…