Community-based Art Education Across the Lifespan: Finding Common Ground

This book is a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of Community-Based Art Education (CBAE). CBAE encourages learners to make connections between their art education in a classroom setting and its application in the community beyond school, with demonstrable examples of how the arts impact responsible citizenship. Written by and for visual art educators, this resource offers guidance on how to thoughtfully and successfully execute CBAE in the pre-K-12 classroom and with adult learners, taking a broad view towards intergenerational art learning. Chapters include vignettes, exemplars of practice, curriculum examples that incorporate the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, and research frameworks for developing, implementing, and assessing CBAE projects.

Community-Based Art Education Across the Lifespan will help artist-educators to:

• Approach a community to work with.
• Use theoretical frameworks to develop communal understanding, establish rapport, and challenge assumptions.
• Plan a project in which everyone has a meaningful stake and voice.
• Foster a transformative learning experience beyond the creative process and the resulting product.
• Share, publish, exhibit, and celebrate the experience within and outside of the community.
• Establish and evaluate learning outcomes, enduring understandings, and next steps.

Pamela Harris Lawton is a practicing artist and associate professor of art education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Margaret A. Walker is a clinical associate professor of art education at the University of Maryland, College Park, and coordinates the master’s programs in Visual Arts and Arts Integration in UMD’s College of Education. Melissa Green is a museum educator, artist, and creative community engagement designer.