Our art curriculum is based on several philosophies that are important to imbue in the children:

Where you live and go to school matters (place based)

Black and brown lives matter (representation as inspiration)

We accept LGBTQIA in this safe space (also representation as inspiration)

You are Loved and Love yourself (SEL/Trauma informed practice)

Art IS the reason for art (advocacy)

ALL art is worth making: talent should not be a prohibition (process not product)

Art is a career 

With these caveats in place one must develop lessons that touch on:

The Elements of art

The Principles of art

Skills in artmaking

Exploration of the lives of artists (history)

Careers in art

How art reflects culture and the inner self (history and aesthetics)

Experimenting in a variety of art materials

Your art is different than others’ (critique)

Visual Literacy

To create a curriculum one must consider:

Time available to interact with the students

Meeting them where they are 

Materials available 

Pre Existing knowledge

Teachers ability to teach in a medium

What are the essential questions

What is the context of the art

What do you want them to learn (Backwards design)

Discipline-Based Art Education

Discipline-based art education (DBAE) is an educational program formulated by the J. Paul Getty Trust in the early 1980s. DBAE supports a diminished emphasis on studio instruction, and instead promotes education across four disciplines within the arts: aesthetics, art criticism, art history and art production. It does retain a strong tie to studio instruction with an emphasis on technique. Among the objectives of DBAE are to make arts education more parallel other academic disciplines, and to create a standardized framework for evaluation. It was developed specifically for grades K-12 but has been instituted at other levels of education. DBAE advocates that art should be taught by certified teachers, and that "art education is for all students, not just those who demonstrate talent in making art."

Criticism of DBAE is voiced from postmodern theorists who advocate for a more pluralistic view of the arts, and inclusion of a diverse range of viewpoints that may not be included in a standardized curriculum.

Arts Integration

Arts integration is another and/or alternative way for the arts to be taught within schools. Arts integration is the combining of the visual and/or performing arts and incorporating them into the everyday curriculum within classrooms. Arts integration is especially important today when some schools no longer have or have small arts education programs because it allows for the arts to still be taught and used. Learning in a variety of ways allows for students to use their eight multiple intelligences as described by theorist Howard Gardner in his Theory of Multiple Intelligences. The eight multiple intelligences include bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal,linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, naturalist, and spatial.

Picture Study Movement

The study of art appreciation in America began with the Picture Study Movement in the late 19th century and began to fade at the end of the 1920s. Picture study was an important part of the art education curriculum. Attention to the aesthetics in classrooms led to public interest in beautifying the school, home, and community, which was known as “Art in Daily Living”. The idea was to bring culture to the child to change the parents.

Picture study was made possible by the improved technologies of reproduction of images, growing public interest in art, the Progressive Movement in education, and growing numbers of immigrant children who were more visually literate than they were in English. The type of art included in the curriculum was from the Renaissance onward, but nothing considered “modern art” was taught. Often, teachers selected pictures that had a moral message. This is because a major factor in the development in aesthetics as a subject was its relationship to the moral education of the new citizens due to the influx of immigrants during the period. Aesthetics and art masterpieces were part of the popular idea of self culture, and the moralistic response to an artwork was within the capabilities of the teacher, who often did not have the artistic training to discuss the formal qualities of the artwork.

A typical Picture Study lesson was as follows: Teachers purchased materials from the Perry Picture Series, for example. This is similar to the prepackaged curriculum we have today. These materials included a teacher’s picture that was larger for the class to look at together, and then smaller reproduction approximately 2 ¾” by 2” for each child to look at. These were generally in black and white or sepia tone. Children would often collect these cards and trade them much like modern day baseball cards. The teacher would give the students a certain amount of information about the picture and the artist who created it, such as the picture’s representational content, artist’s vital statistics, and a few biographical details about the artist. These were all included in the materials so an unskilled teacher could still present the information to his or her class. Then the teacher would ask a few discussion questions. Sometimes suggestions for language arts projects or studio activities were included in the materials.

The picture study movement died out at the end of the 1920s as a result of new ideas regarding learning art appreciation through studio work became more popular in the United States.

Cultural Appropriation within the Classroom

Cultural appropriation of crafts within the classroom can be a sensitive subject to teach. In an attempt to teach diversity, educators will make crafts which are representative of a specific culture, or society. Many times, these crafts created in schools are generic and do not celebrate the unique meaning in regards to a specific group of people. If teachers employ crafts to enhance knowledge of a specific holiday, group of people, or a culture, then measures should be taken to ensure that students creating the crafts have extensive knowledge of the origin of the craft as well as any unique meaning behind it. Unfortunately, many teachers do not go to such lengths. Dr. Richard Bay, Art Education Professor of Radford University states “It’s hard to embrace the vast knowledge necessary to learn about a culture. It’s easier for teacher’s to pick up a ‘cookie-cutter’ pattern or lesson plan and say it’s done the job.”

Individuals who employ cultural appropriation have the ability to produce works of considerable aesthetic merit.  Using properties of art from different cultures such as decoration or emulation of creative process can foster a greater understanding and appreciation of crafts from different cultures. This technique can be appreciated in the production of African or Native-American mask making projects, where students emulate technique and explore new material use and construction methods which esteem those practices of different cultures.

Cultural appropriation has the potential to bring many new learning experiences into a classroom. When teachers do not take care to respect the context of art work from other cultures, they are telling students that it is ok to steal from another culture. Dr. Bay explains that taking one item from a culture, such as Day of the Dead masks, or African traditional masks and saying that these specific articles encompass the entire beliefs of a culture is an abomination to the true context of the craft. “Within cultures are sub-cultural groups, and within those sub-cultural groups are families, and each family may have a cultural context, each is to be valued.”

If cultural crafts are to be created in the classroom, there is a fine line between the celebration of a culture and abuse. When teaching cross cultural appreciation, be sure to appropriate appropriately.

Current Trends

The domain of art education is broadening to include a wider range of visual and popular culture. Current trends in scholarship employ postmodern and visual culture approaches to art education, consider effects of globalism on the production and interpretation of images and focus renewed interest on issues of creativity. Within the NAEA, research and publications are being geared toward issues of learning, community, advocacy, research and knowledge.

Art education programs at major research institutions that are addressing these trends in the United States include Florida State University, Ohio State University, Northern Illinois University, Pennsylvania State University, Indiana University, Bloomington, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Western Carolina University,

Teaching for Artistic Behaviors: Choice Based

Choice Based Art Education fosters imagination. Teachers all across the country are discovering a new way to motivate children through the method of instruction known as Choice Based Art Education (Also called Teaching for Artistic Behavior - or TAB™). Choice is an organization of teachers who teach using this method. Centers are set up in the elementary and middle school art classrooms and students choose which centers to participate in for the day. High school students are self-directed in their studies and studio work. While definitive research on this topic is not available online, some Choice teachers are reporting a positive affect on learning in the core curriculum.

https://www.k12academics.com/education-subjects/art-education