Race-based mascots: Reflecting on university–community conversations

Two university art educators engaged in research to explore issues of race and representation through examining the histories of race-based mascots at their two Midwestern US universities. Collaborative inquiry allowed for reflective practice, dialogue and critical listening as part of extended conversations to examine the stereotyping of Indigenous1 culture and images with students and community members. Issues of race, representation, stereotyping and systemic racism were explored with university art education students, faculty and Myaamia citizens (Miami Tribe of Oklahoma) in a workshop setting. Conversations within the workshop aimed to extend understandings about the cultural and artistic traditions of the Miami Tribe and strengthen cross-institutional and community relationships. Post-workshop analysis of the collaborators’ correspondences was analysed to reveal three themes: relationships and voice, representation and acknowledgement. Reconciliation is discussed as ongoing and mutual effort involving a continuous process of critical reflection, listening and dialogue necessary for building relationships and to learn directly from Indigenous peoples.

Batik in Malaysia and Indonesia: A collaboration for reconciling issues of cultural heritage

Conflict claims for the cultural heritage of batik between Indonesia and Malaysia have created tensions between the people of these two countries. The Indonesian and Malaysian governments have never involved academics and arts education institutions in resolving such conflict claims, yet, these communities can play a significant role in post-conflict reconciliation efforts. This article describes a conflict reconciliation method initiated by academics, artists and art educators through a collaborative art project between art higher education institutions in Malaysia and Indonesia. Ways in which collaborations within and across the art and education communities may address the understanding and reconciliation of issues related to cultural heritage conflict are explored.

Bringing Arts Integration to Youth (BRAINY) at Colorado State University

In this chapter, the authors demonstrate how a university Art Education program assists the university art museum and trains students to lead tours for BRAINY (BRinging Arts INtegration to Youth), the museum's educational program for Title I schools. The authors present how they guide student educators to develop tours for BRAINY by applying different interpretive strategies. The impacts that BRAINY creates for the visiting students and local communities include 1) the enhancement of civic engagement for young citizens, 2) high-quality art experiences for Title I schools, 3) the extended community program—Family Day. The impacts on student art educators are 1) knowing how to teach art in different learning contexts that are outside of the classroom, 2) applying the questioning strategies to their classroom teaching for probing art dialogues with students, 3) learning to be prepared but also flexible for unexpected situations. This chapter provides a practical and positive example to address a wonderful collaboration between an art museum, community members, and higher education.

Cultivating Visual Analysis and Critical Thinking Skills Through Experiential Art

Employing visual analysis in the production and critique of artwork is an essential task of an art educator. By encouraging the basic principles of Edmund Burke Feldman's Practical Art Criticism in the development of art making and art analysis, art educators can create a learning environment that guides students toward the practice of higher order thinking skills. Examples of immersive art education that activates space and invites participation from the viewer will be cited as systems for inspiring civic engagement in the classroom.

Educating from Difference: Perspectives on Black Cultural Art Educators’ Experiences with Culturally Responsive Teaching

Since the 2009 Ontario Ministry’s Equity and Inclusive Education strategy called for the implementation of culturally responsive pedagogy across the board, the voice of the Black creative and content in arts curriculum remains invisible. This primary research centers on the perspectives of African, Caribbean, and Black artists called on for the first time to discuss the successes and challenges of teaching culturally responsive arts in diverse Ontario classrooms. This qualitative study uses critical race theory to examine their experiences of working in Greater Toronto schools and surrounding areas in Ontario, Canada. Using cultural arts from across the African diaspora as a tool, their artistic work is situated within culturally relevant pedagogy, which is an alternative approach to centering on identity, cultural frames of reference, and critical student learning. Yet, as these Black Canadian artists garner successful impacts from culturally responsive teaching in classroom space, they identify simultaneous challenges of institutional unpreparedness, anti-Black racism, cultural appropriation, and legitimizing their cultural artistry to school administration. Semi-structured interviews include rich narratives from artists specializing in contemporary and traditional expressions of orality, visual arts, dance, and drumming/percussion from the African diaspora. While navigating instances of unbelonging, recommendations are proposed to improve the understanding of the artists’ role and improve Canadian educational institutions’ relationship with Black creatives in inclusive education.

Struggling to decolonise ourselves as an antiracist act within the field of the Nordic Community School of Music and Arts

This article will investigate a general concern with the practical implementation of inclusion as recommended in policy documents in art education in general and the Nordic Community School of Music and Arts (NCSMA) specifically. We ask: What do policy documents mean by inclusion? In what way can or do art educators practice inclusionary strategies? We consider homogeneity in this field and the need for pluralism in this institutional framework. We will diffract discourses through words and images in threads from a post-colonial perspective, critical race and Whiteness studies. Struggling through our blind spots in knowledge production, we seek to understand how Other perspectives received in the NCSMA can emerge. The three research scholars from the field of education and art embody different educational and geographical starting points and differing but shifting power positions in various contexts. This triangle of embodied knowledge allows us to investigate these conflicting positions and perform intentional antiracist response-ability in research related to the NCSMA as an educational institution. Our analysis shows a discrepancy between general intentions of inclusion and practical outcomes.

Using Design of Location-Based Augmented Reality Experiences to Engage Art-Oriented Girls in Technology and Science

Taking part in creating location-based augmented reality (LBAR) experiences that focus on communication, art and design could serve as an entry point for art-oriented girls and young women towards career pathways in computer science and information communication technology. This conceptual paper presents our theory-based approach and subsequent application, as well as lessons learned informed by team discussions and reflections. We built an LBAR program entitled AR Girls on four foundational principles: stealth science (embedding science in familiar appealing experiences), place-based education (situating learning in one’s own community), non-hierarchical design (collaborations where both adults and youth generate content), and learning through design (engaging in design, not just play). To translate these principles into practice, we centered the program around the theme of art by forming partnerships with small community art organizations and positioning LBAR as an art-based communication medium. We found that LBAR lends itself to an interdisciplinary approach that blends technology, art, science and communication. We believe our approach helped girls make connections to their existing interests and build soft skills such as leadership and interpersonal communication as they designed local environmentally-focused LBAR walking tours. Our “use-modify-create” approach provided first-hand experiences with the AR software early on, and thus supported the girls and their art educators in designing and showcasing their walking tours. Unfortunately, the four foundational principles introduced considerable complexity to AR Girls, which impacted recruitment and retention, and at times overwhelmed the art educators who co-led the program. To position AR Girls for long-term success, we simplified the program approach and implementation, including switching to a more user-friendly AR software; reducing logistical challenges of location-based design and play; narrowing the topic addressed by the girls design; and making the involvement of community partners optional. Overall, our initial work was instrumental in understanding how to translate theoretical considerations for learning in out-of-school settings into an LBAR program aimed at achieving multiple complementary outcomes for participating girls. Ultimately, we achieved better scalability by simplifying AR Girls both conceptually and practically. The lessons learned from AR Girls can inform others using LBAR for education and youth development programming.

COMPOSITION IN THE LANDSCAPE: ART AND PEDAGOGICAL ASPECT

The author emphasizes the importance of studying the landscape as a genre of fine arts by students. The laws and techniques of composition are the basis, the basis of writing works of all genres of painting that is why compositional competencies are the main place in the structure of art education. This is especially true of landscape composition.Creating a landscape involves drawing in the open air, outdoors. The work should start with finding the best location – landscaping locations. It is well known in an art practice that any composition begins with sketches. The same goes for landscape composition. It is emphasized that in the course of future teachers' of fine arts professional training should be acquainted with the basic laws of the construction of landscape composition on the plane, the means of applying the method of golden intersection in landscapes, methods of reaching the depth of space in the image of the surrounding nature in different compositional formats and compositional generalization; step-by-step work from compositional searches to detailing and completion of a complete artistic landscape image. Art educators argue that all the details in the landscape should be well connected and helped to express the overall idea of the composition. To do this, students need to focus on more area characteristic features, select the most typical landscape objects. It is revealed that the landscape is not just a copy of nature from nature, but also the expression of the artist's attitude to nature, the transfer of the artist's own mood, their experiences and emotions. The author emphasizes the importance of studying the соmpositional techniques in the landscape should be applied not formally, but in order to best express the main idea of the artist. The author agrees with the opinion of artist-educators, who argue that students should be given the opportunity to independently set certain compositional tasks and perform them independently in the creation of a landscape.