Education in the United States is often characterized by testing and standardized outcomes, and bears little relevance to the culture and the community that surrounds both students and teachers. Conversely, community arts connect the philosophies of art and education to the larger spheres of culture and community. The community thus becomes an…

What is the relationship between student teachers' studio art practice and pedagogy during the student teaching experience? What are the benefits of reflecting on connections between art teaching and artmaking after the student teaching experience? In developing one's art practice, art educators build conceptual frameworks for curriculum with…

Through a comparative case study, Sheridan and colleagues explore how makerspaces may function as learning environments. Drawing on field observations, interviews, and analysis of artifacts, videos, and other documents, the authors describe features of three makerspaces and how participants learn and develop through complex design and making…

Since Pen Argyl High School in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania was in the process of redeveloping its mascot, the Green Knight, the author decided to implement a studio project based on armor. In groups of three, students would research an assigned type of historical armor, replicate it in cardboard, and fit it to a group member. The lesson had heavy…

Greater Latrobe Senior High School in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, is a school where art is supported both by the administration and the local community. While the school was undergoing renovations, this author was given the task of creating a six-foot round mosaic in the entrance of the school. The design was to be student-created and was to represent…

Quality arts learning can be a vehicle for personal transformation. For more than 40 years, an unwavering belief in the possibility of such transformation has sustained the nationally recognized after-school Apprenticeship Training Program (ATP) at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (MCG). Within school walls, academic standards position the arts as a…

Students in York County, Pennsylvania, live near Amish communities, and recognize the influence of Amish culture within their own lives through food, decorative arts, furniture, and quilts. The understanding of the cultural ideas used in Amish quilts, however, is not often explored. Two regional art educators, Trisha Coggins and Sara Little, were…

In this article, the author, an art teacher at a Pennsylvanian high school, tells of methods she has used to help "open up" students in her Intermediate Studio Art class who are timid but talented individuals who will not risk embarrassment by expressing themselves. Her methods involved having students serve as models for sketches and…