Teaching Contemporary Art With Young People

Book excerpt: This practical resource will help educators teach about current art and integrate its philosophy and methods into the K–12 classroom. The authors provide a framework that looks at art through the lens of nine themes—everyday life, work, power, earth, space and place, self and others, change and time, inheritance, and visual culture—highlighting the conceptual aspects of art and connecting disparate forms of expression. They also provide guidelines and examples for how to use contemporary art to change the dynamics of a classroom, apply inventive non-linear lenses to topics, broaden and update the art “canon,” and spur creative and critical thinking. Young people will find the selected artwork accessible and relevant to their lives, diverse and expansive, probing, serious and funny. Challenging conventional notions of what should be considered art and how it should be created, this book offers a sampling of what is out there to inspire educators and students to explore the limitless world of new art. Book Features: Indicators and lenses that make contemporary art more familiar, accessible, understandable, and useable for teachers. Easy-to-reference descriptions and images from a variety of contemporary artists.Strategies for integrating art thinking across the curriculum.Suggestions to help teachers find contemporary art to fit their curriculum and school settings.Concrete examples of art-based projects from both art and general classrooms.Guidance for developing curriculum, including how to create guiding questions to spur student thinking.