Adolescents face complex dilemmas such as challenging issues of identity and self-concept, and struggles with building and maintaining relationships. These issues must be embraced in the art classroom. This Instructional Resource will focus on the concept of brand--connecting visual art, marketing, and psychology--and center on ideas found in the…

This article demonstrates how Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) art discussions and subsequent, inspired artmaking can help reach the goals of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects (CCSS-ELA). The authors describe how this was achieved in a remedial…

Educators are concerned about what their students are learning in their interaction and participation in the digital culture. For art educators specifically, the digital and new media practices youth engage in raise other important questions: When contributing to the digital culture, what are they creating? What are the aesthetic qualities of the…

This article will present the autoethnographic animations and processes from three select preservice art educators that enrolled in the Applications of Technology in Art Education course. These students created stop motion animations using small objects, toys, and their bodies; accessing culturally constructed fears, investigating impactful…

In this article, the author examines how art educators can create narrators of art history rather than those who ascribe truth to the opinion of a few. She presents a series of tangible classroom activities that will potentially help art history become meaningful to students' lives. The author states that students have a right to access art…

Viewing YouTube culture as a creative, collaborative process similar to animal swarms can help art educators understand and embrace youth's digital practices. School-age youth are among the most prolific contributors to YouTube, not just as viewers, but also as producers. Even preschoolers now produce videos (McClure, 2010). So pervasive,…

Treasure quests in virtual worlds can help students develop multi-literacy communication skills and promote community, offering insights about art teaching and learning. As part of the new media literacy, students explore the offerings of Second Life (SL), a virtual world, as a series of quests. Multi-literacy involves communication. Through their…

In an era that is rife with aggression and hostility, most art educators hold close to their hearts the belief that they, and their students, can contribute to making the world a better place. Through their acts as teachers and the daily work of art education, they often strive toward creating a space of "non-violence." For K-12…

This article adds to the small collection of art education studies on video games (Parks, 2008; Patton, 2013; Sweeny, 2010) by critically examining the association between violent video games, the U.S. military, and mental disability--from a critical disability studies perspective. Derby overviews the controversies surrounding violent video games…

In this article, the author discusses some of the photographs and videos that her students produced, and shares how their artwork serves as one way that, when given freedom and choice, children will incorporate violent play into their artmaking activities. The author argues that these images are not evidence of inherently violent, dangerous, or…

A software tool is created with the hope of providing a journey into a connective, relevant, and meaningful way of knowing in and through the study of art. In this article, the author describes a research project that resulted from unfettered imagining and visualizing of what could be. The progress of this research is documented, along with the…

In this article, the potentially harmful effects of bullying toward LGBTQ students are demonstrated through personal narratives, encouraging tolerance and the freedom to create and express through art. As openly gay and lesbian arts educators, the authors have learned that it is vital for them not only to invite gay and lesbian lives into teaching…

For this Instructional Resource, the author interviewed contemporary sculptor Michael Beitz, who uses art to explore the role of designed objects in human communication and emotional experience. This column was written in response to calls for using Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas (National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, 2013; Stewart &…

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…

Through Alternate Reality Games, students engage in narrative, play, cooperation, creativity, and joy by creating storylines focusing on one element of art. In 2008, the Luce Center at the Smithsonian American Art Museum presented Ghosts of a Chance. The first Alternative Reality Game (ARG) to be hosted by a museum, it was designed to deepen and…