This study examines "specific" exploration activities in students' visual arts portfolios from secondary education. Creating original visual arts products requires exploration according to Getzels and Csiksentmihalyi ("The creative vision. A longitudinal study of problem finding in Art." New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc.,…

Creativity is key in developing students' environmental competence so that they come up with working and sustainable solutions to address environmental issues in daily life. However, these remain under-investigated in both Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) research. Here, we report an action research…

Background: Visual perception and observational skills are an essential part of Visual Arts education, through which young learners, in the primary school, acquire important and necessary skills to create artworks during their creative projects. These skills provide learners in the primary school the opportunity to overcome their self-imposed…

This pilot study explored how creative engagement could serve as a way to navigate the personal loss experiences of professional art therapists. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 3 participants. The results identified 6 themes and 16 subthemes: balancing personal experiences and professional practice, awareness of time, the loss…

In an attempt to connect theory and practice with regard to research on creativity and visual arts, this study aims to explore how visual materials created by children can help determine qualitative parameters in the process of observing creative activity. These materials are the result of a series of workshops designed by the authors, artists,…

Purpose: This paper critically examines the development and direction of the Fabricating Future Bodies (FFB) Workshop. Troubling notions of co-production as enacting equality or empowering participants, it draws on feminist posthuman and new materialist concepts to understand it as an eventful process that occurs in unpredictable and shifting…

This paper explores the challenges and successes of engaging female survivors of childhood sexual abuse and sexual violence in community-based, arts-informed adult learning. The study presents the complex physical, psychological and emotional barriers to participation that were encountered during the fieldwork period. The rationale for using an…

Between 2005 and 2017 yielded fertile ground for research studies and articles about transformative learning and the arts within the field of adult education. The main questions this article seeks to answer are: What art forms are being used for transformative learning, how are they being used, and with what effect? The article begins by…

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…

The article presents the original concept of the author's creative workshop which is treated as an art form and the method of education. It contains a presentation of the structure of the original workshop developed by the author in the context of multi-layered relations occurring in the interconnected areas of art and education leading to…

This qualitative study presents an analysis of how guided visits to an art museum can provide leadership lessons for developing school leaders. The principal interns participated in teaching artists-facilitated guided arts engagement sessions at a large metropolitan museum. The sessions included art-making, observations of portraiture in the…

Alexithymia is characterized by deficits in the ability to identify, differentiate, and describe emotions--abilities that are of importance for social interactions, well-being, and, consequently, also for health. The aim of this study was to investigate whether achievements in cultural activities are associated with alexithymia. Participants from…

An artist-educator examines her experience through the lens of constructivism. The author realized she needed to develop a plan for the art program at her school that would permeate the community, school culture, and the lives of students. Students needed skills, instruction, and a reason to make and appreciate art. The author developed a plan…

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…

Educators are concerned about what their students are learning in their interaction and participation in the digital culture. For art educators specifically, the digital and new media practices youth engage in raise other important questions: When contributing to the digital culture, what are they creating? What are the aesthetic qualities of the…