Describes some of Norman Rockwell's best known works, along with questions teachers can use to stimulate class discussions. Includes descriptions and discussion questions related to Rockwell's paintings of American people depicting freedom, tolerance, and patriotism. (PKP)

This essay notes that two trends seem apparent. First, the pursuit of beauty-production as an artistic goal goes down from Post-Impressionism to the present. Second, since the eighteenth century, objective, formalist treatments of artistic merit have given way to subjective accounts. With these subjective accounts comes antirealist sentiment. The…

In this article, the author describes why he teaches art. He explains that he never planned on teaching art, but he enjoys interacting with students and getting to know them. He says that art is unique because students are allowed to talk while still learning. Whether they have pencils or scissors, charcoal or paintbrushes in their hands, or…

Boston Common at Twilight illustrates that despite the urbanization of late-nineteenth-century Boston, one can still find a sense of peace and serenity there. This article describes Frederick Childe Hassam's painting, "Boston Common at Twilight." It highlights notable cultural, historical, and artistic elements in the painting and…

Foam printing offers all ages and abilities a way to explore textures in the classroom and to develop personal creativity and imagination. Polystyrene foam trays (commonly known as "meat trays") are readily available, inexpensive, lightweight, portable, and receptive to a wide variety of surface treatments. The printmaking process requires only a…

One of Michele Curio's favorite art lessons is creating a resist using oil pastels under black tempera paint. The process produces dramatic and creative results with a high success rate even for the most art-challenged students. The artworks have a sophisticated, painterly quality that is achieved with more control and less mess than direct…

The term globalization has come into popular use in many areas of discourse. For the most part, it refers to the development of global financial markets, the growth of transnational corporations, and their increasing domination over national and local economies. As the authors use the term in this article, the meaning and significance of…

La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra combines a meticulously hand-painted landscape with historic photographs in a seamless blend imprinted on the holographic-like surface of a metallic coated substrate. The mural for the Denver International Airport, entitled La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra is a breakthrough in digital murals, printed digitally on a…

This brief article describes Winslow Homer's oil on canvas painting, "Sunday Morning, Virginia." "Sunday Morning, Virginia" depicts a group of African-Americans learning to read in a slave cabin after the Civil War. A young teacher, wearing a crisp dress and apron, sits surrounded by three children as she teaches them to read…

The author of this article chose Cambodia's Angkor temples as a jumping-off point for her students' exploration of printmaking. This article describes a lesson in which students used subjects, themes, and symbols that demonstrate knowledge of contexts, values, and aesthetics that communicate intended meaning in artworks.

The findings summarized in this report are intended to shed light on what it means to cultivate demand for the arts, why it is necessary and important to cultivate this demand, and what state arts agencies (SAAs) and other arts and education policymakers can do to help. The research considered only the benchmark arts central to public policy:…

In this article, the author describes Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities in Bogliasco, Italy, which offers a stately perch from which a few lucky scholars and artists can gaze at the Mediterranean and gather their thoughts making it so conducive to the study of arts and letters. The center provides scholars and artists midcareer and…

Ninety university undergraduate students were tested on a number of tasks assessing their recognition of possible and impossible figures, mental rotation, ideational fluency, and self-report artistic and creative characteristics. Scores on the Impossible Figures Task (IFT-14) and the Mental Rotation Test, and self-ratings on the Artistic…

This packet, written for teachers of sixth-grade art and language arts courses, is designed to inspire creative expression in words and images through an appreciation for Japanese art. The selection of paintings presented are from the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution. The interdisciplinary approach, combines art and language arts.…

This book emphasizes the teacher's active role in fostering a developmental understanding of painting in children from ages 1+ to 11. The cognitive processes behind children's painting are explored. The book suggests meaningful tasks for each phase of imagery and offers methods for encouraging children to discuss the concepts involved in their…