Today several contemporary artists are using their artistic talents to help bring attention to the immigration debate. Westover School, the independent school where author Sara Poskas teaches, decided to address these issues by inviting one such artist--award-winning artist and architect Mohamad Hafez, a native-born Syrian, raised in the Kingdom…

This conceptual article uses new materialism, and its particular focus on material things, as a lens of analysis in social studies education in order to demonstrate alternative ways in which social studies education researchers and teachers might engage in inquiry. Historically, social studies curriculum and teaching have centered human agency and…

Drawing books can be seen as a vital component to teaching and learning art. They serve as an excellent resource for understanding the historical context of teaching drawing. As the industrial revolution geared forward in the nineteenth century, drawing books became a crucial source for sharing and disseminating educational philosophies for the…

In this article, the author describes a project designed for fourth-graders that involves making clay relief sculptures of houses. Knowing the clay houses will become a family heirloom makes this lesson even more worth the time. It takes three classes to plan and form the clay, and another two to underglaze and glaze the final products.

The Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress is one of the more significant public structures in American architecture, due for the most part to its wealth and quality of decoration, including an extensive sculptural program executed in 1894-97. The architects entrusted the program to a committee of three prominent sculptors, J. Q. A.…

Both Greeks and Romans placed the building of temples and sanctuaries high on their list of architectural priorities, as these structures were a source of public pride. The temples were built as shrines for the all-important gods and goddesses of the ancient world. The Parthenon is a great example of this. The frieze on the Parthenon shows scenes…

Artists have created portraits of people for thousands of years. In sculpture, a portrait of a person's face often includes the neck and part of the shoulders and chest. These artworks are called portrait busts. In this article, the author describes how her fifth-grade students created clay portrait busts on pedestal columns. The objectives are…

In this article, the author describes an art project intended for high-school students to create a three-dimensional design using a Styrofoam. The students were asked to find and take photos of architectural details, such as decorative columns, and use the photograph as inspiration in their drawings. The drawings served as a "blueprint" to help…

In this article, the author discusses the different two- and three-dimensional art forms. She also describes the different media that can be used in these art forms.

This article describes a clay project for students studying Greece and Rome. It provides a wonderful way to learn slab construction techniques by making small clay column capitols. With this lesson, students learn architectural vocabulary and history, understand the importance of classical architectural forms and their influence on today's…

Hatshepsut (1479-1458 B.C.E) ruled New Kingdom Egypt for roughly 20 years as one of the few female pharaohs in the history of ancient Egypt. Her rule began when her husband died and her stepson was too young to be pharaoh. To legitimize her role as pharaoh, Hatshepsut began a significant building campaign by constructing numerous images, temples,…

The material rhetoric of physical locations like the Museum Park at the North Carolina Museum of Art creates "spaces of attention" wherein visitors are invited to experience the landscape around them as a series of enactments that identify the inside/outside components of sub/urban existence, as well as the regenerative/transformative…

Two fourth-grade teachers presented the idea of using the author's art class to inspire the students to write creatively. The theme of scary stories needed an art project to match. The author immediately had a favorite lesson in mind. By putting a small twist on one of her standard "Frank Lloyd Wright House" projects, scary plans began to take…

This dissertation offers a study of the ways in which some artists active in the United States between 1790 and 1850 theorized that their work could participate in the process of creating and shaping the nation's citizens. Through the detailed analysis of four artists--Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820), Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827), Thomas…