This case study examined four New South Wales (NSW) Australian Year 12 visual arts students' use of visual literacy to create bodies of artwork. They used the NSW visual arts literacy constructs, the frames -- subjective, structural, cultural, and postmodern, and the conceptual framework -- artwork, artist, world, and audience, to inform their…

The art of looking is a museum and art gallery teaching tool at the core of the Visual Thinking Strategies, a Harvard School of Education pedagogy initiated as an educational experiment for schools across the United States almost two decades ago. Today, a large number of schools implement this teaching method to increase student engagement in a…

Presents advice on how Montessori elementary teachers can create a vital arts program in the classroom. Promotes literacy in artistic language, the importance of visual observation, and the importance of teachers educating themselves. Provides a materials list and artwork suggestions for teachers, including creating a visual journal, drawing,…

Aesthetic value enhances personal and professional lives and contributes to people's environment. If one defines the aesthetic sense as the faculty that enables one to modify the quality of his or her environment, then it follows that aesthetic education should be a means to achieve this end. In order for that to happen, there must be changes both…

Line, shape, color and texture have always been the universal components of visual expression. Together these elements form a visual language. This packet is designed to be used as part of the Thematic Tour "First Look" offered by the Georgia Department of Education. The material explores some of the ways people use pictorial language;…

The first step in learning to appreciate art is learning to classify a work according to its primary purpose. The artist creates art for one of three reasons: to recreate the physical world (Imitationalism); to express an idea or feeling (Emotionalism); or to create an interesting design (Formalism). A classified work may then be critiqued by: (1)…

Art reflects the ideas, experiences, spirit, and hopes of those who create it. It is through art works that students can see a visual record of how men and women lived and thought throughout history and across cultures. This instructional resource includes 52 transparencies, accompanying teaching strategies, and student worksheets which are…

Throughout European history, artists have celebrated the values of their patrons. Today, the schools are the largest employer of artists. To justify art education according to current Back-to-Basics values, art teachers should explain visual art as a language, which they can teach students to read and use. (SJL)

This monograph posits a rhetorical theory of video-art and presents perspectives on the status of video-art in Latin America. Video-art, which utilizes technology in the field of aesthetics, is perceived as fundamentally rhetorical and stylistic. Conclusions about the form include the comments that the analysis of visual messages is possible…

Presents a lesson plan developed around the work of architectural muralist Richard Haas. Discusses the significance of mural painting and gives key concepts for the lesson. Lists class activities for the elementary and secondary grades. Provides a photograph of the Haas mural on the Fountainbleau Hilton Hotel, 1986. (GG)

This book explores the relationships between movement and painting in order to better understand the nature of any relationship between dance and the visual arts. It begins with a look at early movements made by the infant and how these develop with the child's increasing sensory awareness and muscular control. Some comparisons are sought between…

In 1899, the Committee of Ten on Drawing, organized by the National Education Association, proposed that one of the main goals of art education should be "to offer a consistent development in the faculty of sight." Art appreciation was centered on the literal translation of the painting. Importance was placed on connecting the painter's…

An examination of 19th century U.S. art and literature reveals the country's strong identification with nature, the ideals of individual freedom and pioneer courage, and the faith in human nature embraced by the immigrants who expanded the country. In the 17th and 18th centuries, U.S. painting reflected the styles and standards of English art. By…

Beginning with a discussion of the functions of art, the author traces the various connections between visual forms and the personal, social, and physical dimensions of everyday life. These are examined in the light of the impact art has on psychological expression, social description, the communication of ideology, the design of useful objects,…

This study attempts to gain information concerning the receptive, as opposed to the creative, aesthetic experience by talking to museum professionals who spend their working lives identifying, appraising, and explicating works of art. The study is based on an underlying assumption that rules and practices for looking at art exist and must be…