EDITOR'S LETTER: APRIL 2022

In our time, it is evident that the range of what can be considered art has significantly broadened. Contemporary artists often reflect and comment on today’s culture, society, and events. Many contemporary artists practice multiple media and techniques rather than specialize in one or two media, an approach that can be valuable for your students.

One reason to address contemporary art in your classroom is that it is readily accessible through the internet, and more importantly, engaging to your students. They have grown up in a digital age with widespread access to the internet and the ready availability of images of artworks and content about contemporary artists.

The ability to create art with uncommon materials, digital media, or other new technologies may encourage student engagement and offer them innovative ways to artistic success or career options. Other reasons for including contemporary art are that it can help students understand real-world contemporary issues and also see themselves represented in art of today.

Resources
One of my favorite contemporary art websites is My Modern Met (mymodernmet.com). In an article by Kelly Richman-Abdou, “What Is Contemporary Art? An In-Depth Look at the Modern-Day Movement” (bit.ly/KRAContemporary), the author shares a historical timeline of contemporary art movements that could be helpful in your teaching.

Another starting point for teaching with contemporary art is Art21 (art21.org), a PBS nonprofit that offers free online curriculum materials and videos of contemporary artists to share with your students. A new resource now available is SchoolArts Collection: Contemporary Art (DavisArt.com/Contemporary), which comprises lessons from this magazine written by high-school art teachers that address the art of today.

Many contemporary art museums and galleries have increased their virtual content in response to the pandemic, and I believe that practice will continue to grow, offering even more resources for your students.

Our Offerings This Month
At the elementary level, Jane Montero’s article “The Amazing World of Jen Stark” shares a contemporary artist’s use of bright colors, black paint, and repetitive line designs to inspire students in a digital drawing project. At the middle-school level, in Jason Van Roo’s “The Expressive Scene Project,” students use contemporary art-based research in their choice of media to represent space on a 2D surface. In Brian Sommersberger’s “Art on the Fly,” students create thematic designs using flying discs as a canvas. We hope these articles and others in this issue inspire you to share contemporary art with your students.

Many thanks to my co-editor Frank Juarez, head of the art department at Sheboygan North High School in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the publisher of Artdose magazine, and a contributing editor of SchoolArts.