Amid a long period of deskilling in art school curricula, craft has been denigrated as inferior to art and confining for artists, but can craft liberate imagination? The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between an adult learner's self-perceived capacity for imaginative expression in representational drawing and the…

Providing spaces for children's culture becomes an issue when it conflicts with or threatens to reverse the notion of 'legitimate' culture. Here, legitimate culture refers to the dominant values of the official curriculum and teachers' cultural values. This article, which stems from an ethnographically oriented pilot study, explores the experience…

As in the case of the 80th anniversary of Picasso's "Guernica," painted in 1937, museums can incorporate significant dates and anniversaries into their educational programming. The University of Navarra Museum has taken advantage of the opportunity presented by this anniversary to present an educational project entitled…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how nature-inspired art education might foster a sense of connectedness and collaboration in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (hereinafter knows as ASD) in a day program. While many studies have uncovered such beneficial art education for children with ASD, there has been little research attempted…

Through the perspectives of a museum educator, an art educator, and an educational researcher, this article explores the evolution of shared definitions of "well-being" in the development of a museum- and arts-based program for adults with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). By piecing together the authors' first-person…

The way the Yale University Art Gallery engages students and the adult public has shifted profoundly over time, a change reflected in the evolution of the museum's signature Gallery Guide program. Founded in 1998 as an organic, experimental way to better engage Yale students to give lecture-based tours, it is now a structured, well-articulated…

The purpose of this study was to observe and implement strategies and adaptations in an arts program for adults with atypical communication due to developmental and intellectual disabilities. This study was conducted in the field using an action research approach with triangulated methods of data collection including semi-structured interviews,…

The arts have played powerful utilitarian roles for individuals and for the societies in which they live for millennia. For the last 250 years, though, "art for art's sake" -- the notion that commercial, utilitarian, moral, or didactic functions are distractions from art's ineffable, intrinsic value as an expression of the artists'…

Art programs for people with disabilities may encourage creativity, promote engagement, emphasize inclusion, and extend access and opportunities for community involvement. This mixed methods study utilized quantitative and qualitative data, repeated measures, action research, and stakeholder collaboration to develop and implement an evaluation…

Targeting students in grades K-8, Art in Action's program consists of 12 age-appropriate lessons per year led by parent and teacher volunteers. The curriculum is based on historically significant artists and their works of art. Through semi-structured discussions, students examine a variety of masterpieces, learning about the artist as well as…

First conducted in 1982, the National Endowment for the Arts' (NEA's) Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) serves as the longest-standing resource for studying U.S. adult levels of arts attendance, personal arts creation and performance, and arts participation through electronic media. The environment in which arts organizations…

The Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPAs), conducted for the National Endowment for the Arts, have shown a steady decline in the rates of adult attendance at most "benchmark" arts events--specifically, classical music and jazz concerts, musical and non-musical plays, opera, and ballet performances--as well as declines in other forms…

Through the arts, people holistically learn, interact with greater multicultural diversity than elsewhere, and form connections with others. Participating in the arts gives adults experiences, contexts, and tools to help them reexperience, revision, and reconceptualize multicultural diversity in their lives and communities. To illustrate aspects…

This booklet contains examples of textile designs created by the Shoowa, a subgroup of the Kuba people of Zaire, Africa; the examples were part of the National Museum of African Art exhibition, "Shoowa Design: Raffia Textiles from Zaire." Additional information is provided about the Shoowa people and how Shoowa textiles are used, made,…

Designed to provide information about arts opportunities for youth and adults with disabilities, this publication describes Very Special Arts (VSA) program activities in the United States that are planned for the period of October 1, 1996, through September 30, 1997. The prospectus begins with an overview of the different types of VSA programs,…