This book is filled with lessons that will encourage your students to learn about, respond to, and create contemporary art. Organized into chapters on Identity, Social and Emotional Issues, and Collaboration, you’ll find studio lessons based on concepts and essential questions. Engage students in projects that are meaningful and discover what their voices add to the contemporary conversation.

Middle-school students use chalk and oil pastels to capture colorful, textured desserts in the playful spirit of Wayne Thiebaud.

An artist and educator discusses how students engage more deeply with contemporary art when it reflects their shared time, place, and community.

Students design and build functional mugs using slab-building and sculptural techniques.

Interdisciplinary artist Jeffrey Gibson creates vibrant works that fuse Indigenous cultural traditions with contemporary global practices.

High-school students step out of their comfort zones to create themed nonobjective compositions inspired by two contemporary artists.

Frank Juárez, SchoolArts editor-in-chief, talks murals and more with one of NAEA26’s Artist Series speakers.

Art educators engage in a hands-on printmaking workshop with artist Steve A. Prince, exploring monoprinting techniques to use in their classrooms.

Frank Juárez, SchoolArts editor-in-chief, reflects on how contemporary art informs teaching and curriculum while deepening student engagement.

Elementary students explore color, texture, and shape through a nature-based lesson inspired by contemporary artist Melissa Scherrer Paré.

High-school students transform traditional portraits into imaginative compositions inspired by surrealism and contemporary art.

Young students collaborate on a large-scale painting of an imaginary heroine, adding nontraditional materials to bring their ideas to life.