Adolescents face complex dilemmas such as challenging issues of identity and self-concept, and struggles with building and maintaining relationships. These issues must be embraced in the art classroom. This Instructional Resource will focus on the concept of brand--connecting visual art, marketing, and psychology--and center on ideas found in the…

A recent community wide reading program offers a valuable opportunity for students and teachers to respond to literature by attending community wide events, creating art, and developing relationships with community members.

Art-based reading instruction and interventions for elementary and middle school students are growing in popularity despite scant theoretical rationale and empirical research support. This study explored the degree to which painting comprehension processes map onto text comprehension processes in this population. In particular, we used think aloud…

Teachers in many countries live the language of standards although it is confined to uniformity and standardization. In the United States, for example, teachers teach to what is now called the Common Core State Standards that focus on students' college and career readiness while falling short of developing good judgment and wisdom. In this…

This case study focused on the addition of a therapy dog in an Art I level class at a public high school level that included students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The purpose of this study is to determine how Animal Assisted Therapy may benefit autism support students in the art classroom. The students participated in lessons that focused on…

While the "scientific" debate about school dropouts has ensued, some have taken matters into their own hands, creating successful non-school based programs on the arts for at-risk youth based. Their efforts demonstrate powerful results for learning and human development. We suggest that it is time to incorporate this knowledge base, and…

Northern Ireland's well-known civil strife between Catholics and Protestants had enjoyed an uneasy peace, but a recent outbreak of new violence in 2010 caused disappointment to these authors. Bernard Conlon and Tom Anderson collaborated on creating a new children's peace mural with the Kids' Guernica Peace Mural Project in West Belfast. This Kids'…

This article is about a year-long teaching and research project conducted with 696 4th graders (mostly 10-year olds) and their 36 teachers in Wyoming/USA. The researchers employed an action research approach. They planned and taught a two-day, Wyoming-themed, interdisciplinary unit, "We Are Wyoming", which integrated Social Studies,…

The present research focuses on modernising the approach to learning and teaching the visual arts in teaching practice, as well as examining the performance of an interactive approach to learning and teaching in visual arts classes with the use of a combination of general and specific (visual arts) teaching methods. The study uses quantitative…

The art room can become a canvas, covered in white paper from floor to ceiling. Doors, windows--even the sink--can play a role as a canvas. One may begin by dressing everything in white. When students get dressed in white paper clothing, watch out--they have become walking canvases ready for painting. Beyond the art room, one imagines draping…

In this article, Miguel Aguilar describes the process of mental preparation he performs before beginning a new graffiti mural. This may include reviewing recent sketches and his lists of color palettes. Aguilar mind maps ideas he wants to connect, thinking about intentions or the goal he wants to accomplish. Aguilar further states "this…

Two mural projects in Brunei offer insight into the specific and universal aspects of public art education and community art making. This article describes how the author used his initiative and experience as a muralist to plan and implement two community art research projects in Bandar Seri Begwan, the capital of Brunei Darussalam. A premise of…

Pure visual art is a silent communicator. The people who make it have something to say, yet they don't always say it out loud. They count on others to look at their art, and to gather meaning from materials and forms arranged to pluck familiar and unfamiliar chords. Some artists have the gift of gab. They are sociable and outspoken. Those artists…

This article introduces the reader to Art professor John Murie, of Stone Child College as he discusses how Native art is constantly evolving and integrating new ideas. Art symbolizes meaning--an awareness and realization of a mystical foundation of intersubjectivity, amd a communication between the artist and the admirer. Murie maintains that…

Using student work as exemplars is a powerful component of a balanced pedagogy. Not only does it help students design reachable learning goals, but it also stimulates students in their studies through collaborative teaching and learning. No matter how good an individual teaching artist is in his or her own art, it does not mean that he or she is…