Creative literacy: A new space of pedagogical understanding

This research has begun to examine how teachers in Maine meaningfully infuse art and Native American epistemologies through visual arts and writing across curricula to enhance student learning and engagement. Teachers explored a perceived new space of pedagogical possibility within visual arts and American Indian curricula as crossdisciplinary models through a project entitled Many Hands. This new space was largely facilitated by the act of writing, once it was realized that writing deepens and enhances the practice of noticing and describing, both in the visual arts and in culture-based curricula. Just as visual art posits that art making can promote critical thinking in all subject areas and encourage intellectual curiosity, the inclusion of writing in art and academic classrooms similarly promotes exploration and risk-taking, as well as the appreciation of multiple perspectives