Blogs

Article

Thinking Like Contemporary Artists

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | Megan Jell

At the start of the school year, after a year of hybrid, virtual, and dual modes of instruction, I noticed a strong resistance to risk-taking in the art room. I needed to retrain my students to take r ...

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Article

Masked Identities

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | Aimee Fresia

I researched contemporary artists and discovered the work of African American painter Jeff Sonhouse (b. 1968, New York). Sonhouse creates large, realistic paintings using colorful patterns and burnt m ...

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Article

Considering Contemporary Art-Making

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | Richard Kim

To access contemporary art-making, allow students to explore options within formal for traditional art-making ideas without giving specific stipulation as to what is “better or effective.” ...

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Article

Postmodern Portraits

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | Trish Klenow

When creating a great postmodern portrait, embrace the cellphone, the selfie, and TikTok. They are ever-present resources for this generation. We’ve come a long way since glamor shots at the mal ...

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Article

Editor’s Letter: Contemporary Art

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | Nancy Walkup

To bring in multiple perspectives for this month’s issue on teaching with contemporary art, I asked our SchoolArts contributing editors to offer their thoughts about why students should engage w ...

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Curator's Corner

Celebrating Spring with Color: Eliot Clark

Monday, April 10, 2023 | Karl Cole

As anyone can probably guess when reading this blog, I’m a big enthusiast of American Impressionism. There are just so many unique personal versions of the style, it’s hard for me to ...

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Curator's Corner

World Landscape Architecture Month: Ginkakuji Temple

Monday, April 3, 2023 | Karl Cole

Landscape architects around the world make works of art out of the natural environment. Every culture has aesthetics that guide this work. In the case of traditional dry gardens in Japan, Zen Buddhist ...

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Curator's Corner

Disabilities Awareness Month: Paul Klee

Monday, March 27, 2023 | Karl Cole

It’s always awful when someone is diagnosed with a debilitating condition, especially when it comes on the heels of having your art publicly declared “degenerate” because of abstract ...

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Curator's Corner

Women's History Month: Lucy Ashjian

Monday, March 20, 2023 | Karl Cole

In the first half of the 1900s, there were numerous pioneering women documentary photographers who defined the genre. This was particularly true during the Great Depression (1929–1940), the seve ...

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Curator's Corner

Women's History Month: Helène Aylon

Monday, March 13, 2023 | Karl Cole

National Women’s History Month recognizes the contributions women have made to society. Many of these women advocated for ecological, feminist, and antinuclear causes, including conceptual, ...

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Article

Drawings in 3D

Thursday, March 9, 2023 | Annemarie Baldauf

If you want to engage students with an exciting hook, 3D printing will do the trick. They can create a two-dimensional drawing of an object and print it three-dimensionally. Today, companies use 3D pr ...

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Article

Light Painting Portraits

Thursday, March 9, 2023 | Rebecca Cauchon Sutphen

Students love to explore photography through light painting (also called light drawing or light graffiti), a technique of moving a light source while taking a long-exposure photograph. Recently, my ad ...

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Article

Learning to Become Emergent

Thursday, March 9, 2023 | Jessi Ruby and Dana Kirk

My purpose in hosting pre-service educators is to empower them to adopt the traits of a TAB facilitator. To achieve this goal, pre-service educators must have the intention of following the TAB guidin ...

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Article

Video Games as Interactive Art

Thursday, March 9, 2023 | Brian Imfeld and Stacy Darwin

When I was in elementary school, it wasn’t possible to play video games in the classroom. Today, students can design their own video games, full of unique characters and worlds using apps like B ...

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Article

Editor’s Letter: Media Arts

Thursday, March 9, 2023 | Nancy Walkup

These days, media arts include digital design, website design, virtual reality, 3D printing, robotics, digital photography and film, animation, and game design. Why teach media arts? Your students liv ...

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Curator's Corner

Disability Awareness Month: Pearl Blauvelt

Monday, March 6, 2023 | Karl Cole

March became National Disability Awareness Month in 1987. Let’s recognize this important national observance with artist Pearl Blauvelt, whose unique vision demonstrates how enriching the w ...

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