This resource describes how one art classroom used "everyday labor" as a topic to connect artmaking to community workplaces. The work of Theaster Gates, Faith Ringgold, Jacob Lawrence, Jeremy Deller, and Adrian Piper are suggested to stimulate class dialogue about work, labor, and jobs. The author invited members of their farming…

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…

Teachers who frame the curriculum around purposeful playful activities that allow children to work at their own pace and allow children to make choices rather than be coerced into their work are indirectly committed to becoming researchers in their own classrooms. The art teacher-researcher is a participant observer of what goes on in the…

The term "visual culture" includes all manifestations of cultural life that are significantly expressed through visual aspects and interpreted through individual and shared experiences. Visual culture includes art, cultural practices, media images, and other forms. However, teaching visual culture involves more than extending the range of visual…

Briefly discusses the role that rites of passage play in traditional cultures and considers the possibilities inherent in incorporating this social concept into middle school art projects. Defines middle school as a transitional stage in adolescent development characterized by institutional and personal separation that lends itself to these…