The Innovation Issue, Summer 2025

Art teachers share new and exciting art-making experiences in and outside the art room. Young students collaborate to paint a hanging cardboard butterfly installation, elementary students use everyday objects to create illuminating bookshelf dioramas, middle-school students use 3D-scanning technology to print lifelike portraits, high-school students address contemporary issues while creating in an outdoor classroom, and more.

The Process Issue, May 2025

Art teachers use a process-based approach to engage students in art-making. Young students apply color-mixing to create vibrant watercolor paintings, elementary students are introduced to the unique process of paper quilling, middle-school students use critical thinking and ideation skills while drawing meaningful self-portraits, high-school students use fused glass techniques to create functional works of art, and more.

The Contemporary Art Issue, April 2025

This issue focuses on various interpretations of contemporary art and what art means for students today. Young students connect to the natural world and print with leaves, elementary students combine elements from historical and contemporary artworks to create a new work of art, middle-school students explore the large-scale sculptures of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, high-school students channel contemporary themes into a self-portrait photo composite, and more.

The Advocacy Issue, March 2025

This issue introduces various ways to address advocacy through different lenses, ranging from cultural perspectives to embracing mistakes and self-expression. Young students use creative thinking skills to connect with themselves and the world around them, elementary students turn mistakes into works of art, middle-school students make clay puzzle pieces with symbolic objects representing their interests, high-school students create detailed fabric portraits, and more.

The Collaboration Issue, January/February 2025

This issue highlights several ways in which art teachers have integrated collaboration into their teaching practice, such as providing students with opportunities to problem-solve and work together throughout the year, learning about the Sustainable Development Goals and creating a tile installation symbolizing them, inviting a local florist to teach an art lesson, collaborating with an artist to create an outdoor installation, and more.

The Storytelling Issue, December 2024

Art teachers provide a variety of lessons for students to communicate their stories and ideas. Young students design their own personalized letters; elementary students create a mural based on food systems after learning about where their food comes from; middle-school students create nine-panel digital collages with symbols representing their likes and interests; and high-school students learn how cellphones and comic books can be powerful tools for visual communication.

The Creativity Issue, Summer 2024

Art teachers encourage students to investigate their own ideas and make connections to the world around them. High-school students discover that the zine is a powerful medium for self-expression; middle-school students create symbolic artworks to honor teachers and staff members who inspired them; elementary students express solutions to community issues through printmaking; young students design a hat based on their friend’s preferences; and more.

The Interdisciplinary Connections Issue, November 2023

Art teachers share a variety of meaningful and engaging interdisciplinary lessons. Students create space suit helmets and souvenir photos of their imaginary journeys through the solar system, use architectural principles in a cardboard construction project inspired by abstract artist Elizabeth Murray, make STEM connections to origami and use unfolded paper figures to create geometric paintings, and more.

The Groundwork Issue, September 2023

Capture students’ attention and engagement with lessons that lay the groundwork for a memorable school year! In this issue, students learn about art room procedures while participating in a scavenger hunt, identify key strengths and how they can use them, develop personal connections to drawing exercises through altered books, create abstract compositions during a virtual artist visit, and more.

The Play Issue, Summer 2023

Play and process-based art abound in the summer issue! Art teachers share lessons in which students can take risks and experiment with materials in a stress-free environment. Students create artful sound sticks to express emotions, assemble 3D hats inspired by art careers, collaborate or work solo to engineer mixed-media parade floats, draw colorful portraits with exaggerated expressions, and more.

The Media Arts Issue, April 2023

Art teachers share lessons that focus on media arts, digital processes, and new technologies. Students design and develop meaningful side-scrolling video games, learn light painting techniques to capture long-exposure photographs, turn 2D drawings into 3D-printed models, create a digital floral folk-art piece inspired by their heritage, and more.

The Choice Arts Issue, March 2023

Art teachers share lessons that focus on student choice and Teaching for Artistic Behavior. Students use an everyday material to express their ideas in 2D and 3D form, experiment with digital drawing apps to alter self-portrait images through collage, engage in discussions about race and identity during a color-mixing exploration, participate in hands-on learning stations to investigate symmetry, and more.