Art teachers highlight the power of collaboration, from foundational concepts and classroom practice to mural-making and community events. Young learners respond to music with abstract compositions, elementary artists build community through large-scale projects, middle-schoolers develop confidence in a teamwork-driven choice-based studio, and high-school students and staff collaborate in a community steamroller printmaking event.
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The key to a successful collaboration is synergy, high engagement, common ground, accountability, and of course, patience. Extending the opportunity to engage and include others in what it means to create, collaborate, and connect leads to meaningful experiences.
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Children are natural explorers who enjoy taking risks, and I love giving them a safe environment in which to experiment with a variety of media. In this lesson, my students engaged in the process of mixing and blending colors to music, using soft pastels. I was interested in seeing how the music would influence the creative process in an instinctive way.
Every year, I engage my students in creating a hallway mural centered on the theme of kindness. I use art as a visual catalyst to spark awareness, emotion, and connection. After selecting a theme and symbolic image, each student contributes an individual piece that expresses the idea of kindness. Creating art around a common theme connects students through shared experiences. A collaborative project like a mural fosters a sense of belonging and unity, transforming individuals into a connected community.
My fifth graders leave their positive mark on the school by creating a legacy mural at the end of each school year. I choose a theme, and each student creates an artwork—digitally or on paper—inspired by that theme. Four works from each class are selected, and students collaborate to combine the strongest elements into a final design, adding a quote that reflects the theme.
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While matting artwork for a division art show, I began to think about framing and matting not just as functional elements, but as potential extensions of the artwork itself. Traditionally, frames are seen as boundaries, but I realized they could be incorporated into the creative concept, adding dimension and depth to a piece. This led to the birth of the Beyond the Frame project, which challenges students to push the limits of conventional composition and explore how their designs can extend beyond the paper and into the frame itself.
After eight years teaching elementary art and two years instructing art education at the university level, I finally decided to implement a fully choice-based art program. In TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) programs, students are engaged and invested because they have the freedom to collaborate with their peers and create work that is meaningful to them and to strengthen their skills in problem-solving and design execution.
Each fall semester, I make the Wyland National Art and Mural Challenge a focus for my students. The Wyland Foundation seeks to protect, and preserve oceans, waterways, and marine life around the world. I usually have my National Art Honor Society (NAHS) members work on it. This contest teaches them to use art for good by promoting a positive message in hopes that we can make important changes for our planet. It also challenges them by working on a large scale and collaborating as a group.
On a brisk Sunday morning last fall, the Sheboygan North and South High School art departments hosted their first collaborative community art project—a steamroller printmaking event. This type of event is usually organized by art institutions, artist collectives, and arts organizations, inviting printmakers from across the state to participate in this unique art experience that celebrates printmaking and community. As a high-school art teacher, the thought of organizing one was overwhelming and exciting. Luckily, I knew the right people to ask for advice.
We witness daily how the arts strengthen academic achievement, build confidence, and nurture social awareness and emotional well-being. Yet despite decades of research, arts education is still treated as secondary to other subjects, especially in communities where it’s needed most. If we want arts education to be recognized as essential, we must demonstrate concrete, measurable outcomes and act on what they reveal for our communities.
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As a multidisciplinary artist, Portland, Maine–based Rachel Gloria Adams is a textile designer, painter, and mural artist. Inspired by the natural beauty of Maine, she has developed a vibrantly colored, graphic visual language grounded in pattern. Her work combines geometric and organic forms in abstract compositions. Drawing from both land and ocean, she brings these forms together with what she describes as an “uninhibited approach to patterns and dynamic color combinations” in paintings, prints, quilts, sewn and painted textiles, and murals. She often collaborates with her muralist husband, Ryan Adams (b. 1984).
