The author's enduring curiosity as an artist, researcher, and educator focuses on how people generate the myriad of artistic practices that enliven their cultures and how and what they learn from those creative engagements. While the author's personal experience and point of view are involved in pursuing these roles, the broader ideas and…

The author's autobiographical poem [inspired by George Ella Lyon (1999)], marked the beginning of an arts-based inquiry into a question of identity that took further shape through a video-artwork, "The Evolution of an Art Teacher: Where I'm From." Arts-based research is a methodology that uses a myriad of forms and combinations of creative arts…

In this article, the author describes how she conducts her art classes. She relates that she begins all of her classes by asking prompting questions and presenting basic information such as a definitions of art terminologies to her students. The author believes in brainstorming with her students, an effective way for creating a dialog with her…

This author relates how she introduced the art of Gustav Klimt to her third-grade class in her desire to provide them with a combined portrait, figure, and writing unit with a focus on positive character traits. Gustav Klimt's use of controlled patterns and designs inspired younger students, who easily related to his style. In this article, the…

In this article, the author, an art teacher, relates how she struggles every year with finding the time for every lesson she wants to do with her students. Because of time constraints, she always had to make a decision each quarter as to whether her seventh graders would do an artist research lesson, a multimedia project, or a unit on portraits.…

In this article, the author, an art teacher at a Pennsylvanian high school, tells of methods she has used to help "open up" students in her Intermediate Studio Art class who are timid but talented individuals who will not risk embarrassment by expressing themselves. Her methods involved having students serve as models for sketches and creating…

In this article, the authors relate how they introduced Pinwheel for Peace project in their classroom to teach about the meaning of peace to their students. The authors chose pinwheel for discussing about peace because it symbolizes simple and joyful childhood things and it is easy to make. Students use paper to make pinwheels. As part of the…

When small art images are incorporated into the curriculum, students are afforded opportunities to slow down, observe minute details, and communicate ideas about art and artists. This sort of purposeful art contemplation takes students beyond the day-to-day educational practice. It is through these sorts of art activities that students develop…

Self-portraiture is a great project to introduce the study of color schemes and Expressionism. Through this drawing project, students learn about identity, digital cameras, and creative art software. The lesson can be introduced with a study of Edvard Munch and Expressionism. Expressionism was an art movement in which the intensity of the artist's…

The goal of No Child Left Behind Act is for 100% of all children to pass their state's standardized tests by the year 2014. With the act steadily increasing expectations for schools, teachers are scrambling to raise test scores. Because the arts are not included in most state standardized tests, schools are cutting these programs and putting all…

Miriam Schapiro's moving artworks take on a life of their own, without the use of traditional chiaroscuro or muscular-skeletal correctness. Taking on the medium of mixed-media collage and raising it from banal reality to high art, Schapiro infuses her work with enough art elements and design principles to stimulate rooms full of art students at a…

"Lwa" is the term given to spirits who are believed to act as intermediaries in the lives of Haitians. Many Haitians call upon the "lwa" daily for their problem-solving abilities. The goal of any artist is to be one with his or her own artwork. When working with young art students, this is the key to keeping them on task. For this reason, an…

Perhaps one of the best ways to describe conceptual art is to quote an old bumper sticker, "If you like conceptual art, think about honking." Conceptual art is an art movement that came into prominence in the 1960s. Like other movements in modern art, conceptual art broke with established tradition. In conceptual art, ideas or perceptions are as…

The author, a middle school art teacher, describes a sculpture project lesson involving Cone Heads (sculptures made from cardboard cones). Discussion of caricatures with exaggerated facial features and interesting profiles helped students understand that the more expressive the face, the better. This project took approximately four to five…

The author of this article, an art teacher, describes a high school studio lesson about sculptural reliefs using Sheetrock. She describes how students can work with and prepare Sheetrock and how they can create a design and transfer it onto the dry Sheetrock plaster. Making repairs to the surface, coloring and finishing, and the tools required are…