As a visual artist, the author has developed particular responses to the materials that surround her in her studio. In this article, the author considers and reflects on the relationship between objects, the artistic process, and learning within the context of ecological themes. She launches the discussion by considering how objects are…

Instructors who teach introductory art studio courses face the task of covering large quantities of diverse content in a short amount of time. Developing material and technical knowledge requires time-consuming practice. Yet these courses are essential for launching a relational studio practice embedded in critical thinking. The awkward leap from…

Designing an art curriculum that emphasizes authentic artmaking, empowers students, and elevates their voices--requires rethinking the way that art educators teach. Art educators must develop curriculum and instruction that embodies three key concepts: (1) inspire student thought; (2) assess students in ways that encourage artistic growth beyond…

Although art classrooms are rich with demonstrations, discussions, and artmaking, the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to art educators wanting to engage students in studio-rich practices. As one solution, Bitmoji classrooms emerged in response to emergency remote teaching (ERT). Bitmoji classrooms--containing an instructor's…

This article questions the significance of art teacher as moral support for reconsidering the often taken-for-granted roles of students and teachers in art education settings. This theme arose in a qualitative case study conducted in a community-based Saturday Art School program at a Midwestern university campus. In this article, the author shares…

Although attempts are currently being made to understand the connections and differences between art and design education (Zwirn & Zande, 2015), there is little reflection on a key problematic that binds them together: the relationship between form and function. In this article, authors Tyson Lewis and James Thurman briefly share a three-part…

In this article, Chelsea Odden describes a unit she designed for her advanced drawing course that integrated reflection strategies at various points, creating opportunities for students to reflect on their artmaking more often and in different ways (Hetland, Winner, Veenema, & Sheridan, 2013). Designing the unit with several different…

During her career as a public university teaching assistant, Ting Fang (Claire) Chien observed many students who were not enrolled in an art degree program ("non-art-major students") struggle with studio art projects. As a result, she developed the Daily Life Object Project (DLOP) to show these students that art is connected to and…

The term "knolling" was first used in 1987 by Andrew Kromelow, then a janitor at Frank Gehry's Santa Monica studio (Heathcote, n.d.). At the time, Gehry, an architect, was designing furniture for Knoll. While cleaning the studio, Kromelow would arrange displaced tools at 90° angles to create an organized surface. Perhaps done out of…

As an art specialist intern at a museum-based preschool, the author facilitated an art studio session every afternoon for 5-year-old students. She naively envisioned children creating artworks that followed her lesson plans and instructions. However, as she embarked on this journey and began teaching these sessions, she witnessed two startling…

Art's capacity to foster metacognition puts art education in sync with general education where understanding and monitoring one's thinking are acknowledged to be essential to an individual's success in school and life (Kolencik & Hillwig, 2011; McGuire & McGuire, 2015; Silver, 2013). The mindfulness inherent in metacognition also connects…

Can a building's ornamentation grow and change? Can it inspire artists, educators, and other scholars to be creative in new ways? In this article, the authors, an instructional faculty team of two studio art professors and the fine arts librarian at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), describe how its collection of Louis H. Sullivan…

Twenty-two individuals are drawing, painting, collaging, sculpting with cardboard, and building with wooden blocks. Some are working collaboratively, and others work alone. Dialogue with the teacher and social interaction between learners catalyze the learning experience. The core curriculum goal, expressing ideas through self-directed art…

This resource describes how one art classroom used "everyday labor" as a topic to connect artmaking to community workplaces. The work of Theaster Gates, Faith Ringgold, Jacob Lawrence, Jeremy Deller, and Adrian Piper are suggested to stimulate class dialogue about work, labor, and jobs. The author invited members of their farming…

What happens when a teaching method designed around learning new technologies is applied to artmaking for teens in an art museum? How do technology and traditional artmaking techniques connect in the studio? What role does mentorship play? What happens to participants after they leave the program? These questions are central to this case study,…