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Editor’s Letter: Play

Tuesday, May 9, 2023 | Nancy Walkup

To what degree does play find expression in your art room? I have always found it to be a benefit for both me and my students. For a variety of perspectives, I asked our contributing editors to share ...

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Curator's Corner

Gems of the Month: Contemporary Japanese Tea Bowls

Monday, May 8, 2023 | Karl Cole

This month’s gems are contemporary artworks that serve the ages-old Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu or sado). Tea drinking was first introduced in Japan during the Nara period (710–794) aft ...

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Curator's Corner

May Day Artist Birthday: Cecilia Beaux

Monday, May 1, 2023 | Karl Cole

The American Renaissance was a period when more American artists traveled to Europe in order to enrich their artistic vision. They brought back such styles as Impressionism, Dark Impressionism, B ...

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Curator's Corner

Spring Green from Gary Hume

Monday, April 24, 2023 | Karl Cole

In my ongoing celebration of spring, I’m featuring British artist Gary Hume. His Spring Angels series of eight screenprints sets just the right tone with their vibrant colors. In some of the pri ...

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Curator's Corner

A Young Wheat Plant for Spring: Hamada Shōji

Monday, April 17, 2023 | Karl Cole

As an avid learner of the thousands of years of Japanese ceramic arts history, I am always excited to contemplate an artist’s work that I had never studied carefully before. Shōji Hama ...

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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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