ERIC Number: EJ1194944
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 7
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0004-3125
EISSN: N/A
Growing a Garden-Based Approach to Art Education
Inwood, Hilary; Sharpe, Jennifer
Art Education, v71 n4 p43-49 2018
With a growing societal awareness of the importance of getting students outside as part of the school day, students and teachers alike are discovering the joys of taking art class outside. Drawing on natural and built environments in their local community, many art teachers are turning to their own school gardens as a fertile site for inquiry, creativity, and exhibition, providing a welcome alternative to the four walls of a traditional classroom. This aligns with the goals of the contemporary movement to reconnect children and youth with nature in their urban and rural communities, which aims to counter nature-deficit disorder (Louv, 2008), better serve those students with natural intelligence (Gardner, 1999), and help to involve children more fully with the places they live (Sobel, 1996, 2004). From an art education perspective, this results in more engaged students, increased exhibition opportunities, and aesthetically improved school grounds; some posit that this may lead to decreased graffiti and vandalism in schoolyards, as well as more positive relations with community partners (Coffey, 1996b). In this article, the authors examine the different aspects of having art class in school gardens. They also describe examples of different school art projects in Toronto, Canada.
Descriptors: Art Education, Art Activities, Art Products, Painting (Visual Arts), Outdoor Education, Art Teachers, Gardening, Foreign Countries, Recreational Activities, Elementary School Students
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada (Toronto)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A