The author's school is only 30 minutes from New York City, so every year when second-graders study towns and cities, the students do a project based on New York City landmarks. This year was the Statue of Liberty. The author introduced Peter Max's famous Pop art to her students, and explained that, as the art world kept changing, artists decided…

When her director first asked her to teach an art class in the infant room, the author must admit that she thought her director was crazy. She nodded and smiled, pretending confidence, all the while thinking, "Teach art to infants? What does that even mean?" But when a teacher is trying to get a job at one of the best early childhood…

This article utilizes the story of an art studio project involving 2nd-grade students in a new urban elementary school as they explored and engaged with architectural spaces in their community during their yearlong study of the theme of "Community." The purpose of this writing is to theorize and codify some major tenets of a narrative…

Art educators are aware that one way to inspire students is to introduce them to prominent artists. They all know that many students have preconceived notions that artists only become well-known after death, or that a life of art means a life of poverty. To open the students' eyes, the author always tries to include lessons about successful,…

In their 2005 exhibit of John Biggers' work, the New Orleans Museum of Art described it as being inspired by "African art and culture, the injustices of a segregated United States, the stoic women in his own family, and the heroes of everyday survival." In this article, the author describes how her students reinterpreted Biggers' work.…

Listening to people complain about the hardships of winter and the dreariness of the nearly constant gray sky prompted the author to help her sixth graders recognize and appreciate the beauty that surrounds them for nearly five months of the year in western New York. The author opines that if students could see things more artistically, the winter…

The news is sometimes frightening, but reacting to a disaster in a positive way empowers students to make a difference. On January 12, 2010, a catastrophic earthquake occurred in Haiti. An estimated three million people were affected and an estimated 230,000 people died. In response to this tragic event, the author's eighth-grade class viewed and…

Blue collar doesn't have to mean drab and dull. At least, not to Troy, New York, historian Mike Esposito, who is a member of a neighborhood revitalization movement seeking to celebrate the people and events that brought diversity, prosperity, and vitality to this upstate New York community more than 100 years ago. Esposito and others invited…

Spry Middle School's annual eighth-grade trip to Washington, District of Columbia, coincided with the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. The museum, with its distinctive curvilinear architecture covered in Kasota limestone, stands as a wonderful testament to the rich culture and history of the many and diverse Native American…

A fairly common understanding among teachers is that the study of the arts opens up the study of cultures. Appreciating the artistic expressions of a culture enhances student understanding of that culture and its people. Beyond appreciation, when students make artworks, they create meaning and explore their perceptions of various cultural roles.…

Teens have issues! They talk about suicide and war. They experiment with drugs, drinking and smoking. Their lives may have been touched by abuse, gangs, or guns. Young people worry about these issues and many others as they work out their emerging identities and race toward their futures. This article discusses how the teachers in Voyager House…

The author had just begun Ann Johnson's "Friendship Fence" lesson from the February 2007 issue of "SchoolArts" with her third graders. In this lesson, students created self-portraits on individual fence pickets that were then combined to make a fence. In this article, the author describes how this idea was applied to the wall…

Cultural diversity presents many challenges to the art educator. Teaching children to be tolerant and to appreciate differences is particularly important in a world that is characterized by polarization, embittered cultural divisions, and prejudice. Students' knowledge and attitudes are mediated by popular culture, which often reduces cultural…

Every Thursday evening, ten high school students meet at the Riverdale Art Project, a New York City-based art program that the author co-founded ten years ago. Students are participating in a semester-long color workshop where they learn about color theory in a structured and engaging way. Focusing on five essential characteristics of color…

Throughout history, visual artists have consciously pulled away from the mainstream hustle and bustle to concentrate, be alone and get work done. Many students in traditional school settings do not have the opportunity to experience those work conditions, given the numbers of students in a typical classroom and class period time restrictions. Even…