Over the course of the Coronavirus pandemic, works of art explored social isolation, abolition, and climate crisis. The pandemic had ruptured normative curricular practices in schools and learning discourses focused on minimizing those interruptions. Meanwhile, works such as Ellen Reid’s SOUNDWALK, Kamau Ware’s Fighting Dark, and Maya Lin’s Ghost Forest crafted relationships to knowledge through site-specific sounds, familiar materials, and sensory experiences of their environments. A group of curriculum designers, researchers, and educators, including the author of this study, affiliated with a university-based Curriculum Lab engaged with these artworks, while processing the pandemic’s effects on their own curricular practices. Situated within the Lab, this project used ethnographic and speculative methods to research how the artworks’ aesthetic and sensory strategies activated curricular contact zones and contributed to artful practices for curriculum theory and design. This study built on the work of critical curriculum scholarship which has demonstrated that significant forms of knowledge and belonging are produced through informal and null curriculum, and outside of schools entirely. Drawing on aesthetics, affect, and vital materialisms, this study theorized ambient curriculum: a surround through which any variety of onto-epistemological practices might cohere into relationships of knowing and becoming. At the same time, this study recognized that formal curriculum exerts a large influence on the daily lives of teachers and students, and that there are educators searching for forms of curriculum more aligned to their commitments to social and ecological justice; beliefs about the complexity of knowledge and learning; and approach to design as a creative process. This project considers the implications of such creative processes for curriculum design as a nomadic practice and curriculum designers as nomadic becomings, making and made by their creations.

This dissertation is a phenomenological study on the origin of expressive arts as an innate human need rooted deeply in the psyche in order to grasp and relate to the human condition. Carl Gustav Jung said, “Life has no rules and that is its mystery.” Art compensates for the chaos that originates and often rules life. The history of art and its evolution in society was explored to paint a picture of the experiences that dominate and leave permanent etchings of the complexities, attachments, and traumas on the psyche. I explored the history of art and its ability to stimulate curiosities, discoveries, and learning. Additionally, I followed the birth of art education and its crossroads within the discovery of the unconscious mind and Jungian psychology. I followed the effects of the unconscious mind and psychology on art and art education, the ecological agents of the Industrial Revolution, the birth of the middle class, and the new accessibility of art. I also discussed the Industrial Revolution and its impact on pushing the artist to new interior boundaries of altered states and the birth of abstract art. Moreover, I looked at expressive art, painting, poetry, and sculpture as the foreground to discover the psychic energy and complexes that stimulate and inspire the artist. I presented eight artist interviews randomly chosen from different backgrounds, specialties, and age. The data analysis process allowed me to gain insights into the artists’ perceptions of how art has enriched the development of their psyches and their lives.

Founded in 1892, the Portland Art Association (PAA) served as Oregon's and the Pacific Northwest's leading visual arts institution for almost a century. While the Association formally dissolved in 1984, its legacy is felt strongly today in the work of its successor organizations, the Portland Art Museum and Pacific Northwest College of Art. Emerging during a period of considerable innovation in and fervent advocacy for the arts across America, the Association provided the organizational network and resources around which an energetic and diverse group of city leaders, civic reformers and philanthropists, as well as artists and art educators, coalesced. This thesis describes the collaboration among arts and civic advocates under the banner of aesthetic education during the Association's first four decades. Though art education continued to be critically important to the organization after 1932, the year the Association opened its new Museum, art was no longer conceived of as an instrument for improving general community life and programs focused on more specialized, fine arts-related activities.

This study concerned the methods in which fourth and fifth grade teachers in one of the larger suburbs of Dallas, Texas, prepared themselves and their classes for a visit to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Twenty teachers who had visited the Dallas museum in the last two years were interviewed using a validated interview questionnaire. The majority of teachers were concerned with both visual and written resources. Although, additional materials were requested, many teachers were uniformed about preparation resources provided by the museum. The teachers' idea and attitudes were found to be supportive of the museum and its programs.

The purpose of the investigation was to collect information from ninety representative art museums in Europe and North America, with visits made to forty-five and a validated questionnaire sent to the others; to study their research-oriented publications as to contents; and to organize the data so that they would be of value to graduate art students. Although this information will be of value to scholars, undergraduate students, and museum personnel, the study was restricted to the graduate art student because some museum libraries restrict their facilities to this educational level.

The purpose of this study was to examine and evaluate the perceptions of high school art teachers, parents of high school students and high school students themselves relative to the merits of goals of a district program for high school art education and to determine whether the three populations share a common perception of these goals. The reveiew of the literature indicated a lack of substantive art programs in the curriculum from kindergarten through grade 12. The emphasis on art productino goals was cited as a major reason art is given such low status in our nation's schools. Many authors believe that if art is to be valued as fundamental to a child's educational development, the emphasis on art production must be broadened to include art hsitory, critique and aesthetics. Because an official school curriculum is often established to reflect societal values, information on art teachers', parents' and students' perceptions of the merits of the goals of high school art programs is important. Such information can be used to plan a local strategy for generating support for and effecting a change in art curriculum. Twenty-two certified high school art teachers, 200 randomly selected parents and a representative sample of 240 high school students were asked to review a list of 20 goals for a high school art education program and to rate them on a seven point Likert scale. for the three groups included The survey instruments five art activities pertaining to each of the four major goal areas of the discipline-based art curriculum, namely art production, art history, critique and aesthetics. Seventy percent of the participants responded to the questionnaires. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine the variability of perception between and within each group, (2) to find whether the three groups possess common perceptions of the merits of alternative goals, (3) to ascertain whether art teachers with more than five years experience share a common perception with teachers with less than five years experience, (4) to determine whether students who have received secondary level art instruction differ in their perceptions from students who have not received instruction, and (5) to compare the ratings of production oriented goals with the other discipline-based art education goals. Major findings of the study were as follows: (1) The plot fo the mean ratings of the merit of the goals for teachers shows wider variability than either parents or students. (2) Students provided a lower mean rating than either the teacher or parent groups. (3) Lack of data. (4) Students and parents with more exposure to secondary art education tended to rate the goals lower than their counterparts with no art background. (5) In the One-Sample Runs test, the art production goals did not appear more predominant at one end of the list of rankings. Teachers, parents and students rated aesthetics and criticism moderately high. In conclusion, the findings indicate that teachers, parents and students do value critique and aesthetic goals in the high school art education curriculum. Continued in-depth research and study with wider populations will be beneficial if we are to meet the challenge to continue to broaden high school art curriculum goals.

This study examined the influences of a variety of verbal and non-verbal strategies on the language acquisition of six fourth grade ESL students in a discipline-based art education classroom. The art teacher/researcher spoke only English, and the students spoke Spanish almost exclusively. The art instruction occurred during eighteen 30 minute sessions, over a period of five months. The program involved the whole language approach, collaborative/cooperative learning, and the study of art concepts through verbal and graphic symbol cue cards and images of art works. Data were amassed from transcripts of video recordings, student and teacher interviews, and reflective notes. This study showed highly successful results with student growth in language acquisition and comprehension of art concepts.

Care can be defined as a set of relational practices that foster mutual recognition, growth, protection, empowerment, and human community, among others (Gordon et al., 1996). This study investigates the practices of care in the context of the curatorial creation of collaborative arts engagements. The recent proliferation of partnerships between artists and communities has revealed that, in some instances, such relationships have not been productive or supportive. This raises questions about how curators and artists embed ethical commitments into their planning and whether their relational practices foster care. Informed by Ethics of Care theory, Relational Aesthetics, and feminist scholarship as derived from the fields of leadership, psychology, and higher education, an interview-based cross-case approach was utilized to examine the Ethics of Care praxis within participatory art engagements. Six art practitioners were interviewed for this study to reveal their common experiences relating to care and explore how this relates to the background and curatorial work of the researcher. Data were collected through interviews and the researchers’ photographic reflection journal. It is argued that the findings expand the definition of ethical, collaborative relations within artistic co-creations. They also highlight the need to embrace discomfort, set boundaries to inform reciprocity, and provide a sense of belonging within Holistic Communities of Practitioners.

This qualitative cross-case study explores the intricate practice of cutting within contemporary art, examining the works of six artists to unravel cutting’s diverse expressions. This research identifies cutting as a dynamic form of drawing that has evolved from ancient utilitarian uses and pre-modern crafts to a contemporary art form bridging various disciplines. The study meticulously charts the transformation of cutting from its historical roots in crafts like collages, quilts, writing, and pottery decoration to its present status as a ubiquitous tool in artistic creation.Through semi-structured interviews, visual analysis, and a comprehensive review of both digital and physical portfolios, the study explores how artists harness cutting to achieve a range of formal, conceptual, and metaphorical outcomes. The research, grounded in a constructivist worldview, contextualizes these practices within the broader contemporary art scene, drawing insights from theorists such as Thierry du Duve, David Joselit, Robert Storr, and Hito Steyerl. This research categorizes cutting techniques into literal, physical, and non-literal, encompassing digital and metaphorical approaches, highlighting the practice’s capacity for innovation and transformation. This study reveals a unifying theme across the artists’ works: the use of cutting as an extension of drawing, facilitating endless possibilities for transformation and expression. This dissertation posits that cutting extends beyond the confines of traditional art forms, acting as a versatile tool that empowers a spectrum of artistic expressions. By examining the historical development and diverse applications of cutting practices, the research enriches our comprehension of contemporary art. It reveals the profound and transformative potential inherent within this fundamental artistic act.

This qualitative inquiry explored how art educators might broaden their views of place through critical encounters with art, local visual culture, and working with older artists. I combined place-based (PB) education and intergenerational (IG) learning as the focus of an art education curriculum writing initiative with in-service art educators within a museum setting to produce PBIG art education. This study engaged art educators in cooperative action research using a multi-modal approach, including identifying and interviewing local artists to construct new understandings about local place and art to share with students and community. I used critical reflection in our cooperative action research by troubling paradoxes in local visual culture, which formed views of place including Indigenous cultures. Using Deleuze's Logic of Sense (LOS) theories of sense and event, enabled concept development through embracing the paradoxes of this research as sense producing. LOS theory of duration complements IG learning by clarifying the contributions of place and time to memory and experience. Duration suggests that place locates the virtual past, which is actualized through memories--one of the shared experiences of IG learning. Rethinking IG relationships as a sharing of experience and memory while positioning place as a commonality, dismantles ageist notions by offering alternatives to binary thinking about old and young. By triangulating participant data based on the extended epistemology of cooperative action research and Deleuze's pure event, I assess the credibility of participant learning. Critical reflection in cooperative action research combined with LOS theory is significant because the reflective aspect of action research aligns with Deleuze's pure event. Vital curricula and teacher praxes resulted when participants integrated localized experiences of place through older artists' memories and art.