Art educators can "critique" senseless violence--mistreatment, exclusion, intimidation, bullying, violation, abuse, corruption, murder, and war--by unleashing the power of students' creativity. In this article, the author, sharing her philosophical context, discusses how art is preventative medicine with the power to transform the…

In this article, Leake is arguing for the relevance of contemporary art as a way to bridge the gap between theory and practice in the spaces of art education. Graeme Sullivan develops a similar argument in his "Studies" article, "The Art of Research." Where Leake looks to possibilities for contemporary art as it is presented in…

Studying images of families in works of art and in snapshots is compelling, and the author wondered if looking at both types of images side by side might help students understand both kinds of images more fully. Snapshots often prompt detailed and vivid stories among family members and friends. Therefore, she wondered if dialogue about snapshots…

The formal elements and principles of art are well known to art educators. Sometimes there are said to be seven of each (Gude, 2004). They were devised as pedagogic tools at the beginning of the 20th century and were used to help understand the modernist, abstract, and non-representational painting of that time. They continue to inform art…

A local focus can give art educators a familiar basis to introduce and expand content. A community-inspired curriculum helps students realize that artists do not operate in a vacuum; rather, they are part of a social world in which art objects are created. In this article, the authors provide an overview of Community-Based Art Education (CBAE)…

Identity is a vital topic for discussion, exploration, and discovery in the art classroom. The artwork of Nikki S. Lee provides an opportunity for students to begin reformulating their notions about selfhood. The work of Nikki S. Lee is significant because it blends documentary, fashion, and staged and unstaged photography to allow viewers to…

A commitment to providing students with multiple learning venues is the foundation of the Art Education program at the University of Missouri. Integral to the curriculum is the belief that all students, university and K-12 alike, should have the opportunity to view original works of art. Having access to museums at an early age sets the tone for…

For more than 60 years, Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson has created art that documents her own experiences and the stories handed down to her from her family. She captures the character of the neighborhoods where she has lived and the places she has visited, and she chronicles the accounts of people and events that have changed the course of history.…

"Invisible" is defined as (a) unable to be seen, and (b) treated as if unable to be seen; ignored (http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/invisible). "Black" is described as (a) of the very darkest color, and (b) relating to a human group having dark-coloured skin, especially of African or Australian Aboriginal ancestry…

Radical puppets are puppets with a social message. Radical puppets encourage creative ideas that lead toward understanding global and environmental aspects of society through the "art of the puppet," a phrase coined by American puppeteer Bill Baird (1965). There is a blending of performance and visual art in puppetry. Through radical puppetry,…

Tricksters represent creativity and ingenuity in ways that are also integral to arts education. Like the tricksters, strong arts programs teach that a question can have many answers and there are multiple ways to interpret what is seen (Eisner, 2002). In this article, the author discusses how she applies lessons learned from the Trickster stories…

Hatshepsut (1479-1458 B.C.E) ruled New Kingdom Egypt for roughly 20 years as one of the few female pharaohs in the history of ancient Egypt. Her rule began when her husband died and her stepson was too young to be pharaoh. To legitimize her role as pharaoh, Hatshepsut began a significant building campaign by constructing numerous images, temples,…

Rooted in graffiti culture and its attitude toward the world, street art is regarded as a postgraffiti movement. Street art encompasses a wide array of media and techniques, such as traditional spray-painted tags, stickers, stencils, posters, photocopies, murals, paper cutouts, mosaics, street installations, performances, and video projections…

In this article, the authors share some of their learning about art, aesthetics, and people's ways of living. They discuss why the renewal of professional learning is important and demonstrate how K-12 teachers can engage in this process by creating a journal of critical inquiry about their own local communities' art, aesthetics, and cultures.…

An art curriculum is not a mere container of aesthetic and cultural content; a curriculum is itself an aesthetic and cultural structure. Students should be able to sense, examine, and explain the structure of the art curriculum; these explanations should emphasize important ideas and themes associated with traditional and contemporary artmaking…