An art room should be a garden of visual stimulation, born of creativity, inquiry, critical thinking and intellectual conversation--and a little collaboration is not a bad thing either! When the author unpacked the new stools for her art room at the high school, she envisioned something more beautiful than the brown masonite circles that…

Focuses on the painting done by John Sloan called "Grand Central Station" and provides background information on the subject matter and the artist. Includes projects in social studies, language arts, mathematics, and visual arts appropriate for upper-elementary through high school students. (CMK)

Provides historical background on mosaics. Describes an art activity in which students create their own mosaics. Discusses what the students can use as material to make the project much more cost effective and explains the process of creating the mosaics in detail. (CMK)

Describes an assignment that was used in an advanced drawing class in which the students created self-portraits, breaking up their images using planes and angles to suggest their bone structure. Explains that the students also had to include three realistic portions in their drawings. (CMK)

Describes an art lesson in which students sketch drawings of flowers and use watercolor paper and other materials to paint a landscape. Explains that the students also learn about impressionism in this lesson. Discusses how the students prepare the paper and create their artwork. (CMK)

Provides historical information on the art technique called marbling. Includes floating paints on water and transferring the patterns formed in the water to paper. Discusses how teachers can teach this technique with materials that fit their budgets. Describes the process in detail. (CMK)

Presents an instructional resource that explores works of art by African Americans from the U.S. Civil War to the civil rights era (1859-1945). Includes reproductions and background information for each art work and artist along with questions and related art projects. (CMK)

The author describes a lesson she did on abstract art with her high school art classes. She passed out a required step-by-step outline of the project process. She asked each of them to look at abstract art. They were to list five or six abstract artists they thought were interesting, narrow their list down to the one most personally intriguing,…

Describes an art project for high school students that combines observational skills, art history, and production. Students research historical art motifs and create a motif drawing. Explains that the students gain an appreciation for their motif and the original artist. (CMK)

Presents an art project in which middle school students copy an artwork by a master artist, research to find a picture of the artist, and create three-dimensional portraits of the artists. Describes the project and lists the materials needed. (CMK)

Uses the biography and work of M. C. Escher to introduce a unit on art history. Tells about Escher's influence not only on artists, but also on mathematicians and physicists. Outlines a student project in which students employed one of these themes: impossible geometry, rotating symmetry, or geometry. (DSK)

Describes an African maskmaking project completed by seventh grade that gave students insight into tribal cultures. Discusses materials and methods students used to make the masks along with a backdrop painting to complement their masks. Displays several examples of student art. (DB)

Asserts that content-based art education, which is dominated by discipline-based art education at the elementary level, is also represented by a secondary model developed within the International Baccalaureate Program. Maintains that the program provides a content-based structure and fosters thinking skills, creativity, and critical appreciation.…