Teaching Contemporary Art With Young People: Themes in Art for K–12 Classrooms

by Julia Marshall, Connie Stewart, Anne Thulson

This full-color 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

144 pages, Hardcover

Published October 8, 2021