This research project explores the use of 'happy accidents' as agents for facilitating more meaningful and critical exploration in secondary school art. Owing to a preoccupation with standardisation and quantifiable results, the more nebulous and invisible qualities of art have become deprioritised within many curricula. This paradigm creates…

This study examined the impact of digital versus traditional mandala coloring on death anxiety levels among 69 adults over the age of 50. Participants were randomly assigned to a digital coloring, traditional coloring, or non-art activity (completing a word search) and levels of death anxiety were compared following a death anxiety induction. We…

Is inclusion in the arts just a myth? Research has shown there are few peer reviewed journal articles and books published about inclusive programs in community art centers for adults with disabilities. This qualitative single case study critically reviewed the inclusive programs offered at a Midwestern community visual art center. During the…

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…

Informed by understandings of affect theory, the pedagogic potential of object itineraries, or simply, the journey of things, is proposed in this case as a form of sensual a-r-tography. A pair of sporty shoes as mundane objects are at the heart of this deliberation, and the mechanism through which to consider the scope of conversations underway…

This article investigated the multifaceted role of artists in educational programmes, focusing on the challenges they face while balancing their identity as artist-teacher, artist teacher, artist-educator, and artist educator. This research was conducted in two phases. Phase one interrogated the effectiveness of artists taking on dual roles as…

This study is a hermeneutic phenomenological investigation into the lived experiences of teachers implementing the National Core Art Standards alongside the California Visual Art Standards, with a specific lens on culturally responsive teaching practices. Utilizing Geneva Gay's theoretical framework for culturally responsive teaching, this study…

In this article, I outline the conceptual framework, methodologies, and findings of a qualitative study I designed to gain a better understanding of how K-12 Latina art teachers experience and navigate issues of racism and oppression in art classrooms. This study is a response to the efforts made by women art educators and scholars of color to…

Though the impacts of prison are fundamentally interwoven in the experiences of many communities, especially communities of color, mass incarceration in many ways remains invisible in the archival record and national consciousness and memory. In this project, Ithaka S+R, in collaboration with Wendy Jason from the Justice Arts Coalition (JAC), a…

This text presents a novel experience in a university in the University of Granada (Andalusia, Spain) aimed at facilitating learning from the potential of the arts and applied theatre through the creation of a space open to the university and non-university community. The description and analysis of this experience as a case study shows us that…

Knowing that vulnerability and risk-taking are both necessary to the educational experience (Willcox, 2017), the author became curious to know what role vulnerability plays in the self-expressive artmaking process, and what could be learned from the uncomfortable feelings that emerge when an artist feels vulnerable. The author also wondered what…

The professionalism of artists and further education (FE) teachers is often questioned. This research will evaluate the impact this has on artist-teachers working in FE. Schön defines a professional as an individual who works in a highly specialized occupation. This article examines how this applies to artists and FE teachers, with reference to…

This article aims to enhance the pedagogy of drawing by integrating relevant aspects of art history and aesthetics with perception and communication theories. "Visualcy" is defined as an articulacy with visual languages, from which the more familiar "3Rs" ("R"eading, w"R"iting, and a"R"ithmetic),…

We present an argument for a higher priority for art in the educational system and "make a case" for the arts--to provide a rationale for its priority in adult education. This is the plan: to provide this rationale; to present practical guidelines for the processes of engaging in art that may be transformative and critical for…

This study focuses on art classrooms as spaces where artistic expression and visual cultural images critically reflect social justice issues, such as refugees, migration, and U.S. imperialism. The authors propose critical refugee studies (CRS; Espiritu, 2014) and difficult knowledge (Pitt & Britzman, 2003) as useful theoretical lenses to teach…