During a visit to Williamsburg Elementary School (Williamsburg, Iowa), this author was introduced to J. C. Holz, a 10-year-old boy who had already exhibited the characteristics of a prolific artist. During one of the interviews with J. C., the author encouraged him to have a solo exhibition of his work at the University of Iowa. The exhibition was…

Picture books are the first visual arts experience many students encounter. A picture book equally emphasizes text and illustrations, and though the text often receives most of the attention, in the best cases, the pictures are excellent resources for teaching about creating and responding to images. For a resourceful teacher who knows how to use…

In this article, the author, an art teacher, relates how she struggles every year with finding the time for every lesson she wants to do with her students. Because of time constraints, she always had to make a decision each quarter as to whether her seventh graders would do an artist research lesson, a multimedia project, or a unit on portraits.…

Tanjore (or Thanjavur or Thanlavoor) paintings are one of the most popular traditional art forms in Southern India. These ornate religious paintings involve Hindu mythology. The paintings are noted for their adornment of gold and semiprecious stones such as rubies, emeralds, and pearls. Currently, the semiprecious stones are often substituted…

Provides a reproduction of a painting called "Torpedo" by Roy Lichtenstein that was chosen because of facial expression. Includes learning activities for use with students as well as background information about the artist and the painting. (CMK)

Despite Hawai'i's location at the northern apex of Polynesia, visual arts education in Hawai'i is predominately west facing in its orientation. Defining visual arts solely along European/American conventions and history, arts education as practiced in Hawai'i does little to acknowledge and engage the diversity of cultural perspectives long…

Painting in early childhood classrooms should have its own values and purposes enriching young children's aesthetic intelligence rather than being considered as mere supplements to other art activities. The three approaches to painting in early childhood settings--Bank Street, Reggio, and Waldorf--consider painting as the core of integrated…

This manuscript considers the way that several creative media--including music, videography, visual arts, literature, drama, play, and altar-making--can be utilized in assisting the multifaceted grief process of clients. In particular, attention is given to the ability of creative media to enable clients to maintain a connection to the deceased,…

Many aspects of the current cultural situation bode well for undergraduate art education. Today's college students have had more experience of the visual arts, at least in their vernacular forms, than any generation in history. They have watched thousands of hours of television, watched hundreds of feature films, and often have mastered computer…

No single traditional discipline can adequately supply answers to the many unresolved questions in African art history. Because of the aesthetic, cultural, historical, and, not infrequently, political biases, already built into the conception and development of Western art history, the discipline of art history as defined and practiced in the West…

The visual arts, like multicultural education, play a vital role in our understanding of diverse human experiences. In this article we explore the role of community-based contemporary art in education. We consider the ways that art practices speak to issues of history and culture as a site of investigation and a method of investigation in…

The Orthodox Christian experience with sacred art--icons--serves as a guide to the present consideration of the potential and challenges of the icon and iconic in our visual age. This article considers contemporary understandings of the icon in light of a millennium of living with icons in the Orthodox tradition. Three basic questions are asked…

This paper describes a longitudinal study undertaken with 40 pre-schoolers during their last six months in an early childhood centre and their first six months at school. The study presents an investigation of the pathways that child drawers and painters make towards representational depictions. As such its primary focus is on cognitive processes.…

This article describes how the students in Maine greatly benefited from the original artworks donated by the famous artist William Thon. Thon was a 20th century artist celebrated in Maine for his paintings of coastal landscapes, turbulent seascapes, sailboats, and fishing boats. Thon, who was widowed, childless, and blind, has left his…

This literature review is an essential resource for anyone involved in the research, theories, or methods and practices of arts integration. It covers what has been written between 1995 and 2007 in the U.S. and abroad and includes an historical overview, definitions and theoretical frameworks for arts integration, research and evaluation studies…