Teaching with Contemporary Art

Thoughts from the classroom on the intersection of art and education

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Redefining Portraiture

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Redefining Portraiture

Art21 Senior Education Advisor Joe Fusaro visits the “Eye to I” exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art with his high school class.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

What It Takes

Teaching with Contemporary Art

What It Takes

What does it take to become an artist? K-12 students respond.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Works Well With Others

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Works Well With Others

Guest blogger Jack Watson asks what would happen if art teachers stopped showing students “how to work and started modeling how to work with others?”

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Making the Circle Bigger

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Making the Circle Bigger

“After my last post I got to thinking about the kinds of networks teachers create in order to stimulate thinking and their own practice.”

Teaching with Contemporary Art

An Expanding Network

Teaching with Contemporary Art

An Expanding Network

Perhaps one of the most exciting things about our network of Art21 Educators so far has to do with those teachers who are building momentum and reaching out to other cohorts in order to collaborate. Over time, I can see this network of teachers not only influencing each others practice but also contributing to new national arts standards, helping others to understand the importance of contemporary art in the curriculum, and continuing to facilitate workshops at national and statewide conferences in order to spread the love.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

You Say You Want Evolution: Looking Backward and Forward with Portfolios

Teaching with Contemporary Art

You Say You Want Evolution: Looking Backward and Forward with Portfolios

Similar to in-progress critiques, portfolio reflections and evaluations do not have to arrive at the end of things. Utilized during the course, it allows for both looking back and looking forward.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Size Matters

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Size Matters

Teaching students about scale in a work of art is “a tricky thing for art educators.”

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Year Five of Art21 Educators: Lynn Grimes and Carol Barker

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Year Five of Art21 Educators: Lynn Grimes and Carol Barker

This week, we are pleased to spotlight the first of this year’s selected educators.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

The Changing Shape of Teamwork

Teaching with Contemporary Art

The Changing Shape of Teamwork

Back in October, 2009 I wrote a post called Teamwork which focused on the fact that, as educators, we often have to work creatively with others in order to construct meaningful, age-appropriate and fun lessons. The best lessons and units of study are often the product of people working together, including educators, community members, parents, and of course students. When I look back just four years ago I realize that my experience with collaboration has changed and evolved into other forms.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Five Years of Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Five Years of Teaching with Contemporary Art

When I go back to my first post, I had only a vague idea about how I was going to write on teaching with contemporary art.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Drawing with the Lights Out

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Drawing with the Lights Out

For the longest time I had assumed, wrongly, that students should view a series of images before trying to make sketches inspired by those images.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Aperture Makes a Great Magazine Even Better

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Aperture Makes a Great Magazine Even Better

Aperture has re-envisioned what was already a high quality magazine and made some beautiful and exciting changes.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Bringing Them Back Home

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Bringing Them Back Home

Who are some of your standout students from previous years? Where are they today?

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Zarina’s Paper Like Skin

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Zarina’s Paper Like Skin

If you teach about and with paper, don’t miss “Zarina: Paper Like Skin,” on view through April 21 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Well Beyond Everyday

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Well Beyond Everyday

If you are interested in how everyday materials can become bizarre and (sometimes) brilliant sculpture, there are three shows ready and waiting for you in Chelsea: Nayland Blake’s What Wont Wrong at Matthew Marks; B. Wurtz’s Recent Works at Metro Pictures; and Mark Dion’s two-floor delight titled Drawings, Prints, Multiples and Sculptures at Tanya Bonakdar.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Home and (or) Away

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Home and (or) Away

Teachers can take trips with their classes to local cultural institutions but sometimes it is beneficial to plan a trip to our own classroom.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 New York Close Up

Teaching with New York Close Up | Liz Magic Laser and David Brooks

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 New York Close Up

Teaching with New York Close Up | Liz Magic Laser and David Brooks

Two recent New York Close Up films featuring artists Liz Magic Laser and David Brooks exemplify how the film series “can make strong interdisciplinary connections.”

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with El Anatsui

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with El Anatsui

El Anastui, one of my favorite artists from season 6, is in some ways an educator’s dream. His sculptures and installations reference history, culture and memory while simultaneously exploring the possibilities of found materials and different processes for making art. And while Anatsui is best known for his stunning, draped metal sculptures, there is more to the work with than meets the eye… and that’s quite a bit to begin with.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 Educators: Success Stories

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 Educators: Success Stories

Over the past four years there have been many success stories from a what-still-feels-like-new Art21 Educators program. And while the experiences within and beyond Art21 Educators vary wildly from teacher to teacher, some of the educators we have worked with- in a range of disciplines and not just art- have provided us with specific comments and reflective narratives that often make smiles touch the back of our heads.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Messing with the Stuff

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Messing with the Stuff

In order for students to feel comfortable expressing themselves with a particular medium, they often have to spend plenty of time messing with the stuff they are interested in shaping- be it car parts, plastics, plaster or paint- before they may be ready to create high quality works. A few artists I find myself recommending to students when it comes to specifically “messing” with paint and thinking like an abstract painter include Hans Hoffman, Helen Frankenthaler, Howard Hodgkin and Jessica Stockholder.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Lingering

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Lingering

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about lingering with images and ways I can get my students to stay with works of art long enough to see and investigate what …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Join Us for Year Five of Art21 Educators

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Join Us for Year Five of Art21 Educators

Are you a teacher interested in learning more about utilizing contemporary art in your classroom? Does spending a week in New York City this summer collaborating with other educators and …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Questions, Questions, Questions

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Questions, Questions, Questions

During a recent conversation I was asked, “Where do you come up with the questions featured in the Art21 educator guides?” I didn’t know what to say. The “Before Viewing” …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Creative Killing?

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Creative Killing?

While the NRA is quick to blame video games for violent behavior because they would much rather talk about something else besides banning assault weapons and ammunition (thank you, Governor Cuomo), I think that organizations like the International Game Developers Association could have a dramatic impact on the future of video games worldwide if the “creative” end of gaming wasn’t so consistently connected to killing people on a video screen.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

When Works of Literature Make The Leap

Teaching with Contemporary Art

When Works of Literature Make The Leap

Contemporary artists and performers offer pathways into literature for the hard-to-inspire. Artists such as Glenn Ligon, Jenny Holzer, and even performances like the off-Broadway production of My Name is Asher Lev offer students ways to get inspired and involved with literature from different starting points.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

More Moments, More Dialogue

Teaching with Contemporary Art

More Moments, More Dialogue

This week I want to follow up on the two most recent posts, Speak About What’s Unspeakable and Teachable Moments in 2012, because there are some loose ends to attend to.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teachable Moments in 2012

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teachable Moments in 2012

Before we continue talking about last week’s “Speak About What’s Unspeakable,” I thought it might be good idea to end the year on a constructive note by looking back at some of the most teachable moments- events, exhibits, chance happenings and other opportunities – that made for uncanny entry points in the classroom…

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Speak About What’s Unspeakable

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Speak About What’s Unspeakable

In the contemporary art classroom, perhaps there is an opening to deconstruct what’s really behind our love of guns, the obsession with “killing”, and “hunting down” characters in things like video games? Can we make spaces where these things are discussed and responses are shared in order to educate a broader audience that really affects change?

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Lynda Benglis in the Elementary Classroom

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Lynda Benglis in the Elementary Classroom

Sharing contemporary art is a wonderful way to generate questions and discussions about art, and in turn, motivate young artists to take risks with their own art making.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Guest Bloggers This Week: Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Guest Bloggers This Week: Teaching with Contemporary Art

This week I am pleased to say that the Teaching with Contemporary Art column some guest bloggers…
Julia CopperSmith and Maureen Hergott are both alumni of the Art21 Educators program and teach elementary art education at Scott and Westdale Elementary Schools in Melrose Park and Northlake near Chicago. Their work has been inspiring to all of us here at Art21 for the past two years, especially since they are finding ways to work with contemporary art and engage some very young students in the process.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Combining (Complicating?) Ideas

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Combining (Complicating?) Ideas

Years ago I had a professor who was a bit cruel when it came to giving feedback. But one piece of feedback he gave me has influenced my teaching, especially in units like this one. He once said, exasperated over my inability to get to the next step on a piece, “Joe, you call these ideas?? Put them together and make one good one!”
In the spirit of this advice which has resonated with me for years I have asked my own students to begin combining ideas in order to more fully explore and depict the theme and subject they have chosen.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Reflecting on Visual Conversations

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Reflecting on Visual Conversations

In my previous post two weeks ago I said that I was interested in encouraging students to draw relationships between works of art and to think about how context affects what we see. Can works of art “speak” to the viewer or have “conversations” with other works? If so, how? Today was the day, after a long Thanksgiving weekend, for the group to share works in progress and get some feedback from one another.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Spotlight Conversations

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Spotlight Conversations

During Art21’s yearlong professional development initiative, Art21 Educators, we ask that teachers coordinate a one-on-one or group conversation that allows them to reflect on and explore major successes and challenges …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Getting Set for Visual Conversations

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Getting Set for Visual Conversations

If you haven’t visited already, the Fisher Landau Center for Art is a wonderful oasis to add to the list of places you can see exciting work in Long Island City. This week, I am taking one of my classes to visit the current show, Visual Conversations. Through the visit I am interested in encouraging my students to draw relationships between works of art and to think about how context affects how we perceive what we see.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Now See This: Teaching with Hans-Peter Feldmann and John Baldessari

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Now See This: Teaching with Hans-Peter Feldmann and John Baldessari

I have always been interested in the way certain artists, more so than others, have the ability to take us by the hand (or the eye) and walk us through works of art very deliberately. Because the “subject” is often about the whole work and not a single focal point, these artists persuade us to compare and contrast, and see the small differences as well as the commonalities.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Feedback Control

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Feedback Control

Giving good quality feedback can sometimes make the difference between students completing mediocre assignments and high quality works of art. This week I want to offer some suggestions for what to do when students are “done” but we know they aren’t.