Introduction: Art & Early Childhood - Personal Narratives and Social Practices

In this issue of Bank Street’s Occasional Paper Series, we explore the nature of childhood by offering selections that re/imagine the idea of the child as art maker, inquire about the relationships between children and adults when they are making art, and investigate how physical space influences our approaches to art instruction. We invite readers to join a dialogue that questions long-standing traditions of early childhood art—traditions grounded in a modernist view of children’s art as a romantic expression of inner emotional and/or developmental trajectories. We have also selected essays that create liminal spaces for reflection, dialogue, and critique of the views that have heretofore governed understandings of children and their art

Concert recording 2016-11-15

[Track 1]. Subjugation. Connection [Track 2]. Captivation / Durgan Maxey -- [Track 3]. Fight / Bryce Owens -- [Track 4]. Overture to Stay / Joshua Bland -- [Track 5]. A cellist\u27s legacy. Part I [Track 6]. Part II / Eric Dreggors -- [Track 7]. Evening prayer / Robbie Baker -- [Track 8]. Elegy / Brandon Wade -- [Track 9]. The grotesques trio. Gargoyles [Track 10]. Chimera [Track 11]. Grotesques / Marissa Johnson -- [Track 12]. Crosshair / Joshua Bland -- [Track 13]. Nightwind sings / L. Coley Pitchford -- [Track 14]. Six reflections through poetry. Memories (Walt Whitman) [Track 15]. The musician\u27s wife (Weldon Kees) [Track 16]. The road not taken (Robert Frost) [Track 17]. Lessons (Whitman) [Track 18]. Stronger lessons (Whitman) [Track 19]. O me! O life! (Whitman) / Nick Vecchio -- [Tracks 20-21]. String quartet #1 / Jeremiah Flannery -- [Track 22]. Tides. Morning tide [Track 23]. Bore tide / Elizabeth Greener -- [Track 24]. Shepherd\u27s contemplation / Robbie Baker -- Green grass / arranged by Eva Martin -- [Track 25]. Urbe fracta est II. A prayer for Jerusalem / Joshua Bland

Complexity, context, and connectedness in elementary art education: An elementary art teacher's practice

Few studies explore and document the day to day practice of elementary art teachers and the factors that influence this practice. Through a qualitative narrative case study and portrait, this study hopes to create an authentic representation of one teacher navigating the space surrounding her practice in context at an elementary school. Three conceptual clusters have been defined encompassing qualities affecting her practice: context, complexity, and connectedness. This study is intended to serve as a starting point for new teachers and as a precursor to future research that looks into the practice of elementary art teachers

¡Pendejo! Preschoolers’ Profane Play: Why Children Make Art

In this article, I address the concept of critical coalitions in play from two perspectives. First, I consider young children’s art making with digital video through contemporary play frames that propose moving beyond the dichotomy of subject (child as actor; active meaning-maker) and object (child as dupe; susceptible to media and moral panic). This reaffirms that play is at once contradictory, pleasurable, fantastic, and culturally purposeful. Analysis of young children’s digital video as play within frameworks proposed by Wilson (1976), Walkerdine (2007), and Freud (1922/1948) allows for an expansion of philosophical ideas about young children’s art making. This coalition between art and play might also expound upon pedagogical ideas about both and their roles in young children’s (and adults’) lives. Complementarily, I propose that playing with children as a research approach has implications for pedagogy in early childhood art education