This digest discusses the symbiotic relationship between art and social studies and suggests ways to integrate the two in the curriculum. The document advocates the study of art in context as a way to help students better understand the historical past by the values reflected in artwork, as well as recognize the power and potential of art for shaping contemporary attitudes and values. Discipline-based art education is compared with social studies concerns and parallels are drawn with art history, art criticism, art production, and aesthetics. Suggestions are given for integrating art and social studies, striving for balance that does not reduce one to the subservience of the other. Thematic, integrated, and multi-disciplinary instructional designs can cluster learning, make connections among activities, discover relationships among things, and encourage mastery of subject matter. (EH)