<p> The scope of this thesis is to examine the potential benefits artists-in-residence offer students in community based after-school art programs. This thesis looks at two artists-in-residence who participated in the same after school program in southeast Washington, D.C., between the years of 2011 and 2013. The ArtReach After School program was developed by the Corcoran Gallery of Art's community education department and serves as the basis for research contained herein. Research focuses on the ways artists' residencies benefit youth and adolescents through aiding in the development of life skills. Data was collected through personal interviews with the resident artists, program directors, and students who participated in the residency. Researchers also observed interactions between students and resident artists on field trips and classroom observations. Based on the widely accepted theories of developmental psychologists Erik Erikson and Howard Gardner, it was found that artist residencies do nurture experiences that aid in the development of life skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, and peer-interaction in youth and adolescent learners. After-school art programs provide an environment suited for embracing these skills that are commonly outweighed by the need to raise test scores in traditional public schools. This thesis explores the potential of one after-school art program that has successfully implemented an artist residency program.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine how collaborative artmaking activates and supports the development of interpersonal skills in young children. By means of a qualitative case study, this study explored how collaborative art projects engage children in using problem-solving, cooperation, and negotiation skills. Data were collected through observation of small groups of preschool children as they participated in collaborative art projects. Field notes, videotaping, small group interviews, and conversations with colleagues were the primary methods for data collection. The data were analyzed using the literature from the Reggio Emilia philosophy and research on collaborative artmaking and interpersonal skills development. Thematic groupings from both deductive and inductive coding techniques were used to analyze the data and draw inferences about the findings. Results show that children co-construct knowledge through the visual language of art during collaborative artmaking. Over time, this construction supports children in their interpersonal skill development. The art medium used in the projects and the role of teacher were examined, revealing how the children were supported in developing problem-solving, cooperation, and negotiation skills. This study makes an important contribution to the literature because it draws connections between collaborative artmaking and interpersonal skill development.</p>

<p> Recent education reform efforts utilize standardized tests and current assessments measure binary results: pass or fail. However, innovation, discovery, critical thinking and design all have experimentation, testing, and failure as essential components of their process. The purpose of this investigation was to explore how visual art teachers define, address, and use failure in their classrooms. Structured interviews with six K-12 art teachers were analyzed for common themes that addressed (1) the ways in which students and teachers assess failure in the art classroom; (2) how extrinsic and intrinsic motivation affect success and failure; and (3) how effort and ability affect student success and failure. Art teachers reported a number of factors - both intrinsic and extrinsic - that affected student motivation, effort, confidence and their opinion on the outcome of a project. Future research should consider alternative assessment methods that enable art teachers to document student failure and success as processes as opposed to endpoints.</p>