The arts are basic educational processes that involve students with different abilities and from differing age groups in sensory perception. This perception, augmented by the use of art compositions, establishes a critical dialogue between the medium and the viewer. What one views, sees, and observes in an art piece serves to create a relationship, much like that between reader and text. With visual arts, the processes of receiving conceptual images and later forming reactions to such images are inexorably bound to higher order thinking skills and numerous aspects of creativity. Learners in current educational settings must be provided with possibilities to view, analyze, and respond to the arts. Learners should have a means through which they may look, feel, and listen to artwork. This realization would relate the curriculum to real life learning and afford the students greater opportunities for academic, social, and personal achievement. Agreement has recently been reached on the importance of arts education and the necessity to include the arts in state and federal education goals. Suggestions are offered for integrating the visual arts into the academic curriculum under the headings: personal education goals and instruction and research. Suggestions for classroom activities are given in the following categories: illustrations in children's literature; children's art; calendars; paintings and photographs; billboards, advertisements, and bumper stickers; and computer technology. (NAV)