This research looks thoughtfully and deeply at the relationship between art education and signs, as defined by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1964/1998). Signs, as articulated by Deleuze (1964/1998), are violent disruptions to our way of understanding the world, causing us to think again and/or re-consider what we once knew (or thought we knew). This study looks generatively at how these kinds of disruptive and disorienting moments might be mined for possibilities in art education and remind us of our own relationality. As a post-qualitative lived inquiry, it asks how might art education be-with apprenticeship to signs and what might art education do-with sign-encounters? Using the theoretical lens of transcendental empiricism and new materialism, this study considers how art educators might hold open the space of sign-encounters for oneself and one's students by turning towards the rhizomatic cut and staying with uncertainty. It is focused on the doing-with, making-with, and thinking-with of art, pedagogy, and philosophy/theory, investigating their deep entanglements in spaces of disruption and ultimately developing frame-works for engaging in this kind of work in the classroom. Drawing from Erin Manning and Brian Massumi's theory of research-creation, this research was experienced in an emergent, layered, and complex way over the last two years, including the construction of this dissertation presented as an assemblage all of its own.

This work is concerned with volume as presented in a painting. The investigation begins with a painting of drawn geometric shapes. Each successive painting problem explores additional facets of variations from this basic problem. There is a total of six painting problems. The general intent of these problems is to investigate the following in regard to volume of experience: color contrast in hue, value, intensity, proportion and complement pattern variations the color phenomenon of simultaneous contrast The medium is acrylic polymer emulsion applied with brush on stretch canvas.

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This study explores the nature of the visual creative process of an artist. Most of the literature is secondary and seems only to meet the needs of the writer, critic or publication. This is a limited study, because as an artist I created a body of work on the Macintosh computer to track the creative process. Because of this special subjectivity, my project was intensely personal, dealing with my own feelings, memory, and psychological makeup. Though limited, the study does, nevertheless, add to the literature about the creative process. I have choosen the Holocaust-- an historical event because its scale and its particular horrors, touch all people. I shared my art work with Holocaust survivors, and asked them for responses. Their responses were a crucial part of my research. In this way I hope to broaden knowledge about the impact that the visual arts have, and how that impact happens. Finally, this research has pedagogical implications to help define the creative process in the visual arts. My own creative process, noted by me, served as a model of one possible way the visual creative process works, and this model was useful in leading students to uncover their own processes.

This study was concerned with the description of nine college studio art instructors' aesthetic beliefs as exhibited in personal art style and ranking of aesthetic beliefs, compared to the content of their class critiques. The review of related literature provided a system for analysis and description of art works and aesthetic beliefs in three principal styles or trends: Formal Order, Expression, and Imagination.

Research has shown that the use of technology in curriculum, and art classrooms in particular, can benefit students. This thesis outlines these benefits which include the potential for technology to make learning more personal, assist students in their future careers, and allow opportunity for collaboration. Still, several obstacles impede the full-fledged realization of that potential, often leading teachers to avoid or ignore technology in their pedagogical strategies. This thesis addresses these obstacles and provides practical and theoretical solutions. Once these obstacles are overcome, teachers will be better able to incorporate new technology in their lessons, such as social media, podcasts, open-source websites, and online programs. As an example of art teaching that uses technology, this thesis also provides a sample lesson plan for secondary students, incorporating elements of interactive Web technologies that have been recommended by art education scholars.

The purpose of the study was to develop, implement, and evaluate a learning center for arts education in a third grade classroom. Specifically, the learning center was designed to increase opportunities for arts education in an elementary classroom, to emphasize the unity of the arts by offering parallel instruction in several art media, and to provide a resource for arts instruction which would not require direct teacher supervision, Arts included in the study were visual art, music, and movement.

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Research by educators in lifelong learning experiences is one of the most important fields in American education today. Even though adults are usually self-directed and will acquire knowledge or will learn skills to solve immediate problems, they usually need a facilitator and a variety of learning experiences to meet their needs and abilities. One of the learning experiences adults will be seeking is through art museums. Consequently, museums need to focus on how to make museum education more significant for adults by teaching them how to learn in museums. The goal of this exploratory study was to analyze any interesting variables in the effectiveness of three dissimilar treatments, using different interpretive techniques and symbol systems, on adults' understanding of the subject matter, content and style of landscapes. This study was developed around a specific exhibition, "A Return to Arcadia: Nineteenth Century Berkshire County Landscapes." In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the three different learning experiences through different symbol systems, eighty-seven adults were divided into three groups. One group was given a straight, formal slide lecture on the exhibition. The second group participated in an informal gallery presentation in the exhibition. The methodology for this presentation was the discussion/inquiry method. The third group was given a double exposure to the exhibition. The slide lecture was presented as orientation before the participants were exposed to the landscapes in the gallery with the discussion/inquiry method. Each of the three groups was given a post slide test, open-ended questions to answer, and an interview immediately after its particular treatment. The findings from the slide post-test, open-ended questions and interviews seem to indicate that art presented in different symbol systems, environments and interpretive techniques does convey different meaning and concepts. The implication of this exploratory study is that definitive research, using the scientific and naturalistic paradigms, should be completed to investigate the significance of the findings from this study.

The dissertation proposes a new model of the artist in society--the artist-educator. This model is explored by investigating the lives and work of ten women artists and writers, who are accomplished and innovative creators as well as facilitators of the creativity of others, especially individuals and groups considered marginal by our society. These artists represent a new model of the artist-educator because of (1) how they view the creative process, (2) their social/political vision, (3) their approaches to teaching, and (4) the force of their impact on others. First, they view the creative process as one which calls for boundary breaking; i.e., taking down distinctions between one's art and one's life, between the uses and functions of various art media, between themselves and other artists, between artists and their audiences. These artists have a social vision: they see themselves as part of a larger whole, a diverse society, and at the same time, they see themselves as artists somewhere near the edge of their particular artistic or literary worlds, not in the mainstream. They also see themselves as change agents who use their art as a means of transformation. In their teaching and facilitating work they are committed to cultural diversity and intend to call forth the voices of those not previously heard from. They tend to believe that everyone is creative, and to assume that one's creativity is linked to one's wholeness and development as a person. They facilitate creativity in women in prison, people in nursing homes, persons with AIDS, the old, the homeless, drug and alcohol abusing teenagers, mentally retarded adults, and others. As artists and educators equally, they represent a new paradigm for who the artist in society might be, and they require that we broaden out the definition of creativity beyond a mysterious process which only a few genuises and artists possess. The artist is to be among us, because we are all capable of creating, all able to speak in the voices of our diverse cultural groups.