Responds to Charles Fowler's article, "Arts Education and the NEA: Does the National Science Foundation Point the Way?" Notes differences between art and science, and the educational efforts of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Recommends several actions to prove NEA's commitment to…

Responds to Charles Fowler's article, "Arts Education and the NEA: Does the National Science Foundation Point the Way?" Suggests that arts education is in crisis because of lack of audience support. Recommends that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) emphasize the importance of arts education as a part of basic education. (KM)

Describes Jan Gossaert's painting of "St. Luke Painting the Virgin" and shows how it encompasses the intellectual pattern of early sixteenth-century thought. Discusses the arguments for and against the making of religious images and how artists overcame the potential threat to their livelihood from church authorities. Analyzes Gossaert's…

Maintains that philosophical aesthetics must be an integral part of art education. Examines existing methods and materials for teaching philosophy to children from the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (New Jersey). Describes a sample unit showing philosophical aesthetics in action in a fifth grade class. (KM)

Discusses six activities from concrete to abstract related to geometric patterns. The stages of the activities are familiarization, starting point, walkabout, do-it-yourself, and investigation. Provides pictures of diverse patterns. (YP)

Recommends the use of visual art games to organize learning for short time periods. Outlines strategies for seven visual art games adaptable for most age and skill levels. Based on familiar games such as "I-Spy" or "Bingo," these activities deal with artistic terms or concepts, artists, artworks, and art history. (LS)

Presents a teaching approach developed by Edmund Feldman that encourages young children to talk about art through guided discussion. A dialogue with a small group of four- and five-year-olds about the painting, "The Countess of Sussex and Her Daughter," by Thomas Gainsborough, is included. (BB)

Introduces students in grades seven-nine to the sometimes ambiguous differences between abstract and realistic art. Explores ways in which the same idea can be expressed in both formats, using Cy Twombly's "Synopsis of a Battle" as an example. Students research a war and create both abstract and realistic pictures of the battlefield…

Recommends the use of visual art games to introduce art units and stimulate student interest. Outlines strategies for 10 visual art games adaptable for most age and skill levels. Based on familiar games such as "tic-tac-toe" or "hangman," these activities deal with artists, artistic skills or concepts, and art history. (LS)

Describes an art project that relates a fifth grade arithmetic lesson with a drawing assignment. Students first learned to enlarge a drawing on a grid, and then were given a segment of a cut-up reproduction of a Picasso painting and asked to enlarge and duplicate their portion. Completed pieces were combined for the final product. (LS)

Presents a comparative review of art criticism strategies offered within the art education literature. Maintains that most strategies are characterized by three different structures: (1) sequential steps; (2) nonsequential groups of questions; and (3) lists of questions. Provides suggestions for further research. (CFR)

Maintains that the American West has fascinated artists for the last 150 years. Presents four lesson plans based on paintings from the Phoenix (Arizona) Art Museum. Includes student objectives, step-by-step instructional procedures, and four full-page color prints of the paintings. (CFR)

Identifies four components of a quality visual arts program. Discusses four components of leadership necessary to develop and maintain such a program. Includes a table describing 12 leadership skills. (CFR)

Provides illustrations, questions, and vocabulary to enable students to develop visual thinking skills through the study of architecture and its concepts. Seeks to help students gain a critical appreciation of the built environment and learn to use architecural terms and basic design principles to discuss architecture as a visual art form. (KM)

Considers concepts and terminologies that focus on generalizations concerning traditional African art and cultures. Argues that alternative concepts and terminologies should be used in developing curriculum and in teaching non-Western art. Discusses traditional African religious beliefs, primitivism, and the function of African art objects. (KM)