This article presents a micro-ethnographic study that took place during a summer research course for six undergraduate and four graduate students majoring in the disciplines of architecture, art education, geography, landscape architecture and an integrative arts program. The research sought to implement ethnographic, visual methods as a means to investigate and depict urban spaces and places that would capture complex narratives of the lived experience of place that were not addressed through the program's previous surveys and urban planning methods. While the study depicted in this article reflects an interdisciplinary expertise with design and art within a particular context, it serves as an example of how visual ethnography could be conducted as part of a place-based art education curriculum. Although this particular project was conducted with university students, the visual methods for place-based research discussed in this article are equally applicable to elementary and high school settings. The school in which students are situated, the neighborhoods in which students live, and the public art sites in a city or town, are viable, rich places for study. Embedded in this article are suggestions for the conduct of visual ethnography in an art education classroom. The author presents a summary of key points, a suggested framework for planning an ethnographic project in an art classroom. (Contains 2 endnotes.)