Describes the life of artist Vincent Van Gogh, focusing on his painting of his bedroom and noting how that painting can be used to introduce elementary students to perspective drawing and visual storytelling. The article explains how to understand the painting, highlighting Van Gogh's use of bright lighting, pairs and balance, straight lines,…

This article discusses how drawing closer to nature, two profoundly important and powerful qualities are experienced. First, the entire world takes on a new degree of poignancy, luminosity, preciousness, subtlety, mystery, and intimacy. Second, the author points out how we increasingly experience ourselves in just the same way: poignant, luminous,…

One art critic called it pure Despite the mixed reviews of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's temporary art installation in New York's Central Park, the public reaction to The Gates was largely positive.The Gates consisted of 7,500 orange PVC frames straddling the park's walkways that varied in widths from 5 1/2 feet to 18 feet. Eight-foot-long ripstop…

The mission of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) is to promote art education through professional development, service, advancement of knowledge, and leadership. This brief describes the NAEA's vision, core values, goal, objectives and strategies, and rationale (why education in the arts and why advocacy), and presents a brief profile…

Teaching history through the visual arts is one way of bringing the past into the present. In Cuba, the visual arts and architecture have reflected the country's "flowering of identity" through time, as a multi-ethnic population has grown to recognize its own distinct history, values and attributes, and Cuban artists have portrayed the…

In this article, the author analyzes Arthur Efland's "Art and Cognition," which advocates study of the visual arts for its cognitive benefits. The author argues that Efland's cognitive premises are largely sound but that his specific recommendations often belie the general principles he espouses. Efland focuses on the interpretation of baffling…

The authors describe how they started a holiday mural project for students in different grades. They discuss how Gustav Klimt became the inspiration for this project. Klimt is an artist known for his "painted mosaics." The authors decided to use a theme that was decorative and enchanting, containing all of the jewel-like qualities that a holiday…

InnerSpark is a residential summer arts training program for high school students established by the California State Legislature (California Education Code sections 8950-8957) in order to make it possible for "artistically gifted and talented students, broadly representative of the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of the state, to receive…

The visual arts can be employed as a counseling vehicle for gifted, creative, and talented students. Color, image proportion, subject matter, and texture in student art facilitate assessment and guidance. Craft, drawing, painting, photography, printing, design, and sculpture activities which could help in this process are briefly described. (CB)

Illustrates the skill and inspiration of master art teacher, Frank Wachowiak, by presenting three lessons for children: "Fruits and Vegetables" or "Leaves" in crayon resist, "X-ray Trees" in crayon engraving and "Angels or Self-portraits" in tempera. Lessons emphasize the use of patterns and textures, as…

Maintains that one of the ongoing challenges of art education is to encourage the correct and effective use of terminology. Discusses expressionism, particularly in relation to landscape painting. Includes discussion of the background, techniques, and full-page color illustrations of four works by major expressionist painters. (CFR)

This article compares the Beehive Collective's "Plan Colombia" to a museum exhibition representing the official U.S. position on Plan Colombia. Through a dialectical (Kellner & Share, 2007; Greene, 1988) reading of "Plan Colombia" and "Target America," I examine how each uses visual narrative to promote a…

A/r/tography is an arts-based research methodology that inquires into educational phenomenon through artistic and aesthetic means. A/r/tographical research engages in pedagogical inquiry where the distinctions between researcher and researched become complicated, responsive, and undone. A/r/tography, the authors argue, develops the relationship…

Several sections in this article begin with a foundational discussion of the connection between art and the general curriculum, including how the effectiveness of that curriculum may then be measured. Continuing with a working definition of "critical thinking", the author demonstrates how Rembrandt's work relates particularly well to the social…