Where I’m Coming From
In today’s toxically polarized climate, individuals willing to engage openly in civil discourse with people they may disagree with are all too rare and merit our collective thanks. One such individual in the field of art education is Dustin Garnet. A Canadian now teaching at California State University, Los Angeles, he is also the current […]
Kenneth M. Lansing, 1925–2022: A Voice in the Wilderness of Art Education
I first heard of Ken Lansing in 2002 at the annual convention of the National Art Education Association. In the Q&A of a session entitled “Educating the Museum Educator,” I suggested that not everything displayed in art museums nowadays truly qualifies as art. Following the session, I was approached by a colleague who introduced himself […]
Art Education Update
Though I’ve been silent on the topic of art education in these pages for nearly two years, I’ve frequently weighed in on it elsewhere. Since those articles would no doubt be of interest to my readers here, what follows is a brief summary of their genesis and content. Owing to space limitations, “Art History Gone […]
Teaching (New) Media Art
Having just read an article bearing the above title—in the March issue of SchoolArts Magazine—I am reminded of the Seinfeld “show about nothing.” For New Media Art, it turns out, includes just about everything. Which means, in effect, that it is nothing in particular, certainly nothing teachable as a discrete discipline. That has not deterred […]
What Semmelweis Taught Me
What does a book report on the life of a nineteenth-century Hungarian obstetrician named Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) have to do with art and art education, the subjects I’m now immersed in? Quite a lot, as it happens. Never heard of Semmelweis? Neither had I until I read a historical fiction about him entitled The Cry […]
Build Kindness not Walls—More Art Ed Nonsense
Leafing recently through a back issue of Arts & Activities (which bills itself as “the Nation’s Leading Art Education Magazine”), I was struck by yet another instance of the foolish injection of political issues into art education.1 An article entitled “Design Thinkers” featured the following photo: The project shown had been carried out in 2016. […]
Whither Saudi Art?
The founding and activities of Saudi Arabia’s MiSK Art Institute ought to be good news for art lovers. As the first institute of its kind in the formerly arch-conservative Saudi kingdom, it aims to support emerging Saudi artists and increase their interaction and visibility both within and beyond the kingdom. Operating under the auspices of […]
The Truth about Pop Art
Having just received a promotional copy of Scholastic Art magazine’s December 2017 issue, entitled American Pop Art: Working with Ideas, I’m moved to comment. But there is so much wrong with it that I scarcely know where to begin. A logical starting point, I suppose, would be the cover, featuring an Andy Warhol Campbell’s [Tomato] […]
National Arts in Education Week—Should We Celebrate?
This week, September 10–16, is National Arts in Education Week—an annual event established by Congress in 2010 to celebrate the value of the arts in education and gain broad support for it. On what grounds could any civilized member of society object? The answer is that the value of arts education largely depends on the […]
How Not to Teach Art History
Just in time for a new school year, the September 2017 issue of Scholastic Art magazine features ten paintings that students should know, because they form part of “our collective cultural history.” Surely a worthwhile undertaking for a publication aimed at middle school and high school visual art education programs—until one examines the works selected […]