This article features artist Amalia Mesa-Baines and discusses her background and influences, her creative style, and her cultural connection. Mesa-Baines is the director of Visual and Public Art at California State University, Monterey Bay. She is an independent artist, a cultural critic, and an author of scholarly research. She is also a McArthur…

One of the author's goals this year was to turn all of the different pieces of research she has collected throughout the years into projects. This is when she thinks of bringing Renaissance quilling to her class. Quilling, or paper scrolling, uses strips of paper that are rolled up to create decorative designs. During the Renaissance, it was used…

In this article, the author presents a checklist of basic materials for two-dimensional activities that are necessary for an elementary-school art program. She also provides a few tips on how to use them.

In this article, the author describes an art project intended for high-school students to create a three-dimensional design using a Styrofoam. The students were asked to find and take photos of architectural details, such as decorative columns, and use the photograph as inspiration in their drawings. The drawings served as a "blueprint" to help…

In February 2010, the author arrived in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria, to teach mural painting at the National Academy of Art for his five-month Fulbright U.S. Scholarship Program lecturing award. He targeted Bulgaria as his host country in his 2009-2010 Fulbright U.S. Scholarship Program application because of its rich mural painting culture. He…

The last two sections (EJ1039315 and EJ1039319) presented stories about specific moments or lessons. Also, situations infused with complexity where the writers had to toggle back and forth between providing the larger context and the details that support readers' understanding of that big picture were presented. In this section each story is…

Fully updated to reflect current issues in the field of art education. Checklists embedded in charts allow users to indicate where their school or district stands in relation to the criteria--which has been expanded to include district wide, elementary, middle, high school, and superior standards. The criteria within the checklists reflect…

In this article, the author discusses the different two- and three-dimensional art forms. She also describes the different media that can be used in these art forms.

Introduce students to humankind's mysterious beginnings with a captivating sense of mystery. Low lighting and simple percussion music will add to the mood. Allow students time to leave behind the sunshine of this modern era and crawl through the narrow tunnel of their imaginations into an immense, dark, underground cave. This is, in fact, was what…

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…

Foil can be shaped into almost anything--it is the all-purpose material for children's art. Foil is a unique drawing surface. It reflects, distorts and plays with light and imagery as young artists draw over it. Foil permits quick impressions of a model or object to be sketched. Foil allows artists to track their drawing moves, seeing the action…

This article reports on the meaning potential of daily access to drawing/writing media for widening and deepening meaning construction. In a yearlong study in a second grade classroom, the author worked with a second-year teacher to see what would happen when art and language were encouraged ways of knowing in which children could construct…

Two years ago, a fortuitous event occurred at the author's school: the pre-K classrooms across the hall from her artroom received a grant that covered the installation of new bathrooms inside the room. Despite the obvious benefits, this construction project generated one of the most engaging student art projects they've ever created: plaster…

The author and her colleagues had picked an "Alice in Wonderland" theme for their Open House night, and decided it might be nice to have a large sculptural figure of Alice and the Queen of Hearts made out of papier-mache. They were a big hit and the students loved making figures that were larger than some of their students. The next year, they…

According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. population is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. This increasing change is reflected in every aspect of people's lives, including the classroom. Now more than ever it is necessary for art educators to address the needs of the steadily increasing numbers of culturally…