Art Appreciation is often a course that undergraduate students take to meet their general education requirements. However, many students have little interest or value of art due to a lack of previous art experiences and often choose the course because they feel it will be relatively easy. This qualitative, naturalistic inquiry focused on students'…

This essay explores two canonical installations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Cloisters and African galleries in the Rockefeller wing. After providing a brief history of the formation of these collections and their display strategies, I analyze the effect of exhibition design for a visitor's judgments and impressions of the works of art.…

How can museum educators create dialogical experiences with European decorative arts? This question frames my essay and stems from the challenges I have faced introducing objects whose original functions seem to overshadow their aesthetic and interpretive value. Repeated efforts to spark rich dialogue and collective interpretation around pieces of…

When displayed in museums and classrooms, Renaissance-era (1420-1600) painting, architecture, and drawing masterworks are often decontextualized from the social reality of the Academy system under which they were produced. For centuries, the artworks of the Italian Renaissance have seduced viewers with technical mastery, exquisite pigments, and…

Numerous incidents have been reported in recent years wherein a work of art is mistaken as trash. The question is, how have people reached the point in the civilized world where a purported work of art cannot be distinguished from a pile of rubbish or a grid of condensation pipes? The answer to that question lies in the basic assumption of nearly…

In this paper, the author asserts that current efforts to transform art education into visual culture studies (VCS) constitute a deeply disturbing educational trend. She asserts that, much like the now largely discredited developments in literary studies of recent decades (whose bankruptcy it apparently ignores), this movement aims quite…

Line, shape, color and texture have always been the universal components of visual expression. Together these elements form a visual language. This packet is designed to be used as part of the Thematic Tour "First Look" offered by the Georgia Department of Education. The material explores some of the ways people use pictorial language;…

This paper reviews some of the recent research relative to the thoughts and writings of the English art critic, Clive Bell, one of the leaders in British art criticism for the first part of the 20th century. Bell's conception of "art as significant form" is considered with specific reference to the following educators: (1) Roger Fry and…

This art education resource, designed for use in the Snite Museum of Art, may also be used with slides or reproductions. Black and white reproductions are included for each of the art works represented, along with title, artist, date, and media information. This three part gallery guide presents a brief synopsis of the stories narrated in the…

This annotated bibliography is intended as a guide to some 370 curriculum and instructional resources in art education located at The Curriculum Resources Center at Rhode Island College (48 books, 123 curriculum guides, 87 non-print media, 101 art prints). The process of identifying and classifying materials in art education led to the acquisition…

Discusses the differences and goals of four areas: (1) art appreciation; (2) art history; (3) art aesthetics; and (4) art criticism. Offers a definition of art appreciation and information on how the view of art appreciation in education has changed over time. (CMK)

Considers the true value of art by outlining a number of factors that determine the price of a painting including the fame of the artist, the time of the artist's death, and the age of the work. Concludes that students should be encouraged to consider the emotional, aesthetic, and intellectual worth rather than the monetary value. (KM)

In an introductory section by Michael D. Harris, this resource presents a discussion of aspects and problems in the WEstern study of African Art. This is followed by six lesson plans based on art works from the Fred and Rita Richman Collection of Sub-Saharan Art in the High Museum. The handbook follows Georgia's Quality Core Curriculum and the Ten…

This paper describes a program developed and implemented to increase an elementary school staff's basic knowledge of discipline based art education (DBAE). The target group consisted of one preschool teacher, three kindergarten teachers, three first grade teachers, one second grade teacher, and two third grade teachers. The program consisted of…

Addresses the issue of the fame of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." Describes several kitsch objects that have been created about the painting. Maintains that students need to address this issue otherwise such exploitation will depreciate the value of the art work. (KM)