The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Rembrandt Project was designed to apply state-of-the-art digital technology to the development of the multiple competencies needed for understanding and appreciating Rembrandt and his time. As educational consultant to the project, the author was given the assignment of conceptualizing a framework…

In past years, teachers without professional training in the arts have often been able to avail themselves of summer institutes that introduced them to specific works of art and followed up with artists in the classroom, performance, or trips to an art museum. But what happens when such support is no longer available and teachers have to function…

Article links together criticism, the arts, and the relevance of art in contemporary society. (RK)

Considers how literary critic, George Steiner, explores the failure of Western Civilization to humanize humanity. Analyzes Steiner's ultimately elitist model of culture to shed light on implications of his brutal paradox in which Nazism's death camps are juxtaposed to high culture. Theorizes about the possibilities of a culture inclusive of all…

Considered is the question of how the humanities taken seriously might contribute to a better living of the personal life. Specifically, the author took three aspects or dimensions of wisdom and indicated how each might be furthered by a particular masterpiece of literature. (Author/RK)

In September 1990 UCLA's Wright Art Gallery opened an exhibition entitled Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation 1965-1985 (now usually referred to as CARA). While CARA was one of several national events displaying nonmainstream art, it was also distinctive in its politics of self-representation. The artists participating in CARA insisted that…

Author considered how cultural services, conceived of mainly as the arts and humanities complex, relate to other cultural activities. (Author/RK)

Article considered the meaning of cultural services and its meaning for career education and professional education as well as the need for primary production and delivery services. (Author/RK)

Attempts a brief summary of the American critical scene for the period 1935-1965 in order to indicate the serial prominence of 1) a sociological, 2) a New-Critical, and 3) a Marxist moment in literary criticism. Sets out to assert that for any literary work to be taught as a humanity is to bring to bear upon it the arts of communication,…

In the present humanities educational scene, whole areas have become little more than the celebration of simulacra. According to this author, it is obvious that, despite all of the references to texts and linguistics made by its practitioners, what deconstructionism really does is formalize criticism as criticism. In its final analysis,…

What are the humanities, and how should they be cultivated? With respect to this crucial question, opinions differ as to how widely the humanities should be construed and pursued. Initially connoting the study of Greek and Roman classics, the concept now more generally covers arts and letters, history, and philosophy. But does it also include the…

2001 marked Yale's 300th birthday. It seemed an opportunity for reflection on the evolution of the institution, and particularly on the vicissitudes of the humanities over those three centuries. This article presents essays which represent a selection from the symposium, "Beginning With the Humanities," held at the Whitney Humanities Center on…

Article presented a survey that attempted to evaluate 134 humanities programs. (Author/RK)

In April 2000 Ralph A. Smith was recognized by the National Art Education Association (NAEA) as the National Art Educator of the Year. At a general session of the NAEA national convention, he received a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. He appeared surprised at first, then elated, by the resounding sense of appreciation the…