All programs for the gifted and talented should incorporate visual and performing arts, so that students' natural interests and creative abilities are not stifled. Many gifted and talented high school students not classified as artistically talented can achieve in discipline-based curriculum areas stressing nondiscursive art-making activities.…

Aims to foster among art educators and students an awareness of how many contemporary artists are promoting ecological restoration. Grounds these artists' work historically, and discusses its view of humanity as interconnected with nature. Offers suggestions for involving art educators and students in ecological theory and artistic creation. (DSK)

Reports the effects of art-history instruction on students' abilities to interpret artwork contextually. Confirms that eighth-grade students are more successful in contextual interpretation; students at both levels can use successfully the historical artist perspective; and art-history instruction at both levels increases students' ability to…

Looks at individuality, in the sense of a personal expressive idiom or style, in children's art production. Shows that early stylistic differences manifest in children's art making correspond to basic cognitive/affective learning processes. Outlines implications for ideas about child development. (DSK)

Investigates possible test stimuli effects as causes for variations in results of research on children's preference for compositional balance as related to age threshold and developmental trend. Finds several test stimuli effects that could have interfered with previous studies. Concludes by noting implications for art education. (DSK)

Describes the gradual breakthroughs and the classroom procedures in one teacher's efforts to find a pedagogy for poetry that would side-step or eliminate the need for a direct assault on meaning. Discusses the complex first response to poems. Uses visual art to encourage looking and seeing over judging, and reporting over interpretation. (PA)

Relates the experience of sixth-grade students who created a mural of the rain forest on a school wall. Describes the process of choosing a theme, researching the theme, designing the composition, and painting the mural. Uses the team approach to foster cooperation and peer learning during the project. (DSK)

Explains that if students want to depict predatory animals in works of art, they need to learn the shapes of the animals and their habitats. Discusses four artworks (reproductions included) that depict predatory animals by Darrel Austin, Ando Hiroshige, Antoine Louis Barye, and John Singleton Copley (CMK)

Provides information on marine painting, the historical treatment of its subject matter, and its stylistic development. Discusses and includes reproductions of paintings, from the marine collection of the Butler Institute of American Art, by Robert Swain Gifford, Stuart Davis, Alfred Thompson Bricher, Augustus V. Tack, and James E. Buttersworth.…

Reviews the work and life of Maxfield Parrish, an illustrator and painter. Considers "Maxfield Parrish, 1870-1966," an exhibition featuring more than 170 works, including easel paintings, mural studies, drawings, and prints. Provides examples of his artwork and an itinerary for the exhibition. (CMK)

Discusses maritime paintings addressing such topics as why artists are attracted to sailing vessels and the content of the paintings. Includes reproductions of paintings by Edward Hopper, John H. B. Everett, Lyonel Feininger, and Willem van de Velde the Younger. Selects works to help students realize that maritime art is quite varied. (CMK)

Focuses on how the construction of understanding can be supported through the visual arts in the context of the British National Curriculum for Art and Design. Giving students experience working with art materials is not, in itself, sufficient; the experience must be shaped in order for students to develop artistic understanding and appreciation.…

Focuses on David Bates and his artwork entitled "Blackwater I." Includes background information, activities based on the artwork, and a reproduction of the painting. Describes the painting, focusing on how it is like and unlike folk art. (CMK)

Discusses learning that occurs beyond the classroom and home, identifying (through illustration of arts-based extracurricular activities) key features and educational benefits of this environment, the creative and critical power of youth work in the arts (particularly visual arts and dance), and manifest reasoning and organizing properties of the…

The author of this article, an art teacher at Monarch High School in Louisville, Colorado, describes how her experience teaching in a new school presented an exciting visual challenge for an art teacher--monotonous brick walls just waiting for decoration. This school experienced only minimal instances of graffiti, but as an art teacher, she did…