This brief article describes the history, traditions, and food of the Mexican holiday known as Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Day, and explores classroom and studio activities that teachers can do with their students. Teachers are urged to encourage students to explore the topic of the Day of the Dead, comparing it to other traditions and…

This brief article explores the work of Friedrich Stowasser (1928-2000), an Austrian artist who modified his name throughout his career, eventually settling upon the invented name of Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Both Hundertwasser's original Slavic surname and his invented surname mean about the same: hundred waters. Both names illustrate the…

The author of this article describes using a Fantasy Landscapes lesson to get students expressing environmental issues through art. The Fantasy Landscapes lesson is an exploration of art elements and design principles through visual problem solving that links ideas, language, and theory to art. To get students thinking specifically about…

State standards, benchmarks, or frameworks have become a way of life for most art teachers. When they write lesson plans, they look over their state's visual art standards and insert a couple that seem to fit that lesson. The National Art Education Standards were developed and adopted in the early 1990s in response to mandates for educational…

Items that are discarded by one person become of value when assembled together in a different way by an artist. Assemblage is a sculptural art form wherein individual objects that originally served one purpose are joined together to create something new. The possibilities in creating art treasures from "trash" are endless. Louise Nevelson was an…

The Blue Man Group began in 1988 when friends Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, and Chris Wink all living in New York--voiced their increasing disgruntlement and boredom with urban life. With a gut feeling that creativity and a tribal-like community could prosper in their metropolitan environment, the friends decided to confront the issues rather than…

Thanks to a generous grant from a family foundation, two retired art teachers from Washington Elementary School in Evanston, Illinois, were brought back to facilitate a series of special projects, giving every child in the school a meaningful experience with clay. Each grade level team was asked to decide on a part of the curriculum they wished to…

Students' natural curiosity provides a rich opportunity for teachers to make meaningful scientific connections between art and ceramics that will enhance the understanding of both natural forces and scientific aspects at work in the creation of clay artworks. This article discusses the scientific areas of study related to clay, which include…

This author relates how she used to hate bugs but a museum visit changed her perception about them. She realized that in her panic of shooing insects away, she failed to recognize them as living models of the elements and principles of design. It made her realize that insects can provide an opportunity to teach this important lesson to her seventh…

In this article, the author relates how she uses an art lesson that integrates art, language arts, and science in an enjoyable, creative project about dinosaurs in her kindergarten class. She relates how the children enjoy being illustrators and becoming familiar with well-known children's illustrators. She also relates that she starts her classes…

Sometimes the questions that art poses and the paths taken to answer them can be as important as the answers themselves. Questions in aesthetics--the branch of art that deals with philosophical issues--involve exploration of big ideas that have varied and multiple responses. Providing opportunities for students to consider and reflect upon their…

In this article, the author relates what she had learned about motivating students to participate in writing activities. She initially assumed that time consuming and materialistic rewards would be the solution to this common teachers' dilemma. Instead, she discovered that teacher enthusiasm and ability top the list. This practice makes sense…

In this article, the author relates how she and other art teachers developed a "living painting" lesson, an art lesson that incorporates art history and painting. The lesson was developed also in part to help new student-teachers plan a memorable lesson. With the living painting lesson, students will have to choose and recreate famous paintings…

In this article, the author relates how he and his class outlined a plan for a public artwork project to be displayed in their community. The author discusses how he asked his students during the course of making the project to reflect on the following: (1) Who am I?; (2) Who are middle-school students?; and (3) What does collaboration look like?…

This article introduces Community Bridge, a participatory public art project that brought together artists and residents to address aesthetic needs of an urban environment. The Community Bridge is an exemplary work of art by American artist William Cochran. In addition to creating a natural gathering place for residents of all ages, the bridge is…