SchoolArts and Davis

01/10/2025

In K12ArtChat episode 202, & ’ Connected Arts Networks explore the importance of providing inclusive & liberated spaces for students. Featuring Dr. Mi'Jan Celie Tho-Biaz and CAN members Rachel Murray and Malissa Baker.

Listen at the link in bio!

01/02/2025

12/26/2024

We hope your holiday season is warm and wonderful! We're taking the holidays off to be with family and friends 🌟

Please join us again in 2025 for new conversations, guests, and inspiration!

Happy Holidays from Davis!

12/23/2024

Artist birthday for December 23rd: John Marin (1870-1953 US) 🎂

Marin’s watercolors and oils often depicted Manhattan’s cityscapes and Maine’s coastline, merging fragmented planes with expressive lines. Maine became a recurring subject after his 1914 visit, where he purchased an island and spent summers painting. His work supports Davis programs like A Community Connection 2E and Explorations in Art Kindergarten 2E, exploring architectural and community themes.

Shown here: City Construction, 1932, watercolor and charcoal on paper, 88.9 x 76.2 cm Courtesy of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY, © 2024 Estate of John Marin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York (AK-881miars)

This image complements the following Davis programs:
* A Community Connection 2E, Unit 4: Art and Places — Studio Exploration: Drawing a Town Center
* Explorations in Art Kindergarten 2E, Unit 10: Explore Buildings and Communities, Lesson 3 — Make Choices and Arrange Cut Paper Structures

12/23/2024

Introducing the newest title in 's Art Education in Practice series: Ethical Decision-Making in Art Education by Cristina Bain, PhD!

How do art educators learn how to make effective professional decisions, especially when teaching encompasses diverse situations and environments?

This book will help all art educators understand how beliefs and values form the cornerstone of ethical decision-making practice.

Learn more: https://hubs.ly/Q030wCG90

12/21/2024

Exciting news 📣 The deadline has been EXTENDED to submit your student art for the 2025–26 Art Advocacy Planner!

You now have until January 6 to get your student art submissions in for a chance to be featured on the front or back cover!

🏆 PRIZES:
Front cover artwork:
Teacher and student each receive $100 Blick gift certificates, plus 10 planners

Back cover (several will be selected):
Teachers and students each receive $25 Blick gift certificates, plus 10 planners

Submit here: https://hubs.ly/Q030mjmM0

12/20/2024

The January/February 2025 issue, Collaboration, is here!

This issue highlights several ways in which art teachers have integrated collaboration into their teaching practice, such as providing students with opportunities to problem-solve and work together throughout the year, learning about the Sustainable Development Goals and creating a tile installation symbolizing them, inviting a local florist to teach an art lesson, collaborating with an artist to create an outdoor installation using materials reclaimed from the ocean, and more.

Plus, check out our exclusive Q&A with installation artist and sculptor, Cheng-Tsung Feng!

Read the digital edition: https://hubs.ly/Q030mjn70

On the cover:
Cheng-Tsung Feng, Beside, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.

Since 1901, Davis Publications and SchoolArts magazine have been committed to providing superior art

12/19/2024

’s 200th episode is here! Join us in celebrating with by listening to this special conversation featuring Julian Wade, President of Davis Publications, reflecting on the past, celebrating the present, and looking toward the future of art education!

Listen now: https://hubs.ly/Q030cZ-v0

Also available on your favorite podcast app!

12/13/2024

Our cover feature for December 2024, the Storytelling issue, is "Cellphones and Comics: Keys to Visual Storytelling" by Rachel Wintemberg 🐇

Rachel writes: "My design students start the year taking photos and end the year creating their own hand-drawn comic books or animatics (animated storyboards). If you want your students to create art that communicates, my advice is to have them take lots of photos with their cellphones (both in and out of the classroom) and read comic books. This is a quick and fun way to improve and artist’s sense of visual composition."

Read the full lesson now in our December issue! https://hubs.ly/Q02_F_550

Student artwork:
1: Bryanna C., Where the Rabbits Hide, grade twelve.
2: Sheyla F., Valentineʼs Day, grade eleven.
3: Melina D., Yet She Realized Her Worth, grade eleven.

12/12/2024

Southeastern Region Vice President, Joshua Drews (), joins to discuss the evolution of media arts. As technology is integrated more and more, students are embracing all things digital. Listen to episode 199 now at https://hubs.ly/Q02_wJvp0 or wherever you get your podcasts.

12/11/2024

Artist Birthday for December 11th: Alfred Jensen (1903–1981, US, born Guatemala) 🎂

Alfred Jensen, born to Danish parents in Guatemala, became a leading abstractionist in the US with a style distinct from Abstract Expressionism. His grid-like compositions recall Adolph Gottlieb’s pictographs but align more with Bauhaus geometry and Auguste Herbin’s Abstraction-Création. Works like That is It (1966) reflect meticulous planning, blending influences from Minimalism, Abstract Expressionism, and Op Art.

Background:
Post-WWII American art was shaped by Abstract Expressionism, which artists explored through action painting, color fields, or personal research. Jensen stood out with his grid-based abstractions inspired by the Mayan calendar, Goethe’s Theory of Colors, and Leonardo da Vinci’s color studies.

Raised in Denmark, he studied in San Diego and later under Hans Hofmann in Munich but rejected Hofmann’s Bauhaus-influenced curriculum as too restrictive. By 1957, Jensen developed his signature style, combining structured abstraction with scientific and mathematical concepts.

Shown Here:
That is It, 1966, oil on canvas, 106.7 x 91.2 cm. Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, © 2024 Estate of Alfred Jensen / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

This image is part of the Davis program Davis Collections, STEAM: Mathematics.

12/09/2024

AIDS Awareness Month, December: Patrick Kelly (1954–1990, US)

The CDC established AIDS Awareness Month in 1987 as the epidemic grew severe. Many creatives lost their lives to AIDS, including Patrick Kelly, a trailblazing American fashion designer known for his bold, joyful designs.

Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the Civil Rights Movement, Kelly began sewing as a teenager. He studied art and fashion in Atlanta and New York but faced racial barriers in the U.S. Ultimately, supermodel Pat Cleveland gifted him a ticket to Paris, where his creativity flourished.

Kelly’s work incorporated vintage buttons, bows, hearts, and whimsical elements, often reflecting Black history and resilience. Hearts became a signature motif tied to his concern about AIDS, the disease that tragically ended his life.

In 1988, Kelly made history as the first American accepted into the French Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter, earning global acclaim. His designs were loved by icons like Princess Diana, Madonna, and Grace Jones, leaving a legacy that inspires to this day.

12/06/2024

🚨 Two weeks left!! 🚨

Want a chance to win a $100 gift certificate from for yourself AND your student? Submit your student art for the 2025–2026 Art Advocacy Planner contest!

🏆 PRIZES:
Front cover artwork:
Teacher and student each receive $100 Blick gift certificates, plus 10 planners

Back cover (several will be selected):
Teachers and students each receive $25 Blick gift certificates, plus 10 planners

📌 The deadline for the contest is December 20 (TWO WEEKS!). Find out more details on the submission page: https://hubs.ly/Q02-M-d70

12/05/2024

Oil painter and host of the CANDYcolored studio podcast, Katrina Berg, joins for the latest K12ArtChat episode! Listen in for insight on balancing a creative career, teaching, and personal life.

Listen now: https://hubs.ly/Q02-BZKh0

12/05/2024

We're excited to feature Ryan Gardell (Artifakt Studios) in our Contemporary Art in Context feature for December 2024: Storytelling!

Ryan Gardell is a mixed-media artist who works primarily in painting both on canvases and walls. He embodies the contemporary street art ethos of community involvement, beautification of neighborhoods, and uplifting community spirit. Gardell is also a graphic designer who enjoys illustration, photo-editing, motion graphics, and animation. It is his street art that he considers his most powerful tool because of its ability to communicate complex emotions to the widest possible audience.

Read our exclusive article and Q&A (and share with your students!), in the December issue: https://hubs.ly/Q02-x3zV0

🖼️ Image credits:
1: Ryan Gardell with his favorite medium.
2: Basquiat, 2021, Worcester, Massachusetts, painted in support of The Bridge Academy ().
3: The Elders, 2023, located in Worcester, Massachusetts.
4: Detail of indoor mural at the Worcester Public Library, Worcester, Massachusetts, 2021, assisted by Ivy Orth and Grhimm Xavier. Images courtesy of the artist.

12/04/2024

Happy National Wildlife Conservation Day, December 4th!

Wildlife Conservation Day was proclaimed by President Obama in 2012 to raise awareness about endangered species.

These rock-cut temples are actually miniature renditions of wooden temples built during that period. The designation “temple” is a misnomer because none of these were ever completed. As a result, these structures were never consecrated or used for worship. Their unfinished state may be attributed to the death of the Pallava ruler Narasimhavarman I (died 668 CE), son of Mahendravarman I, who commissioned them. All the temples share the same rock platform.

The Arjuna Rath, while imitating a post-and-lintel structure, introduces a complex sculptural program on the side walls and an early form of tower that later became prominent in southern temples. The large elephant figure (unfortunately now deprived of tusks) was carved out of the same granite as the temple. It has the same monumental character as the elephant figures in the Descent of the Ganges group.

In Hinduism, the elephant represents royalty, power, wisdom, fertility, and longevity. In both Hinduism and Buddhism, man and the elephant make their first appearance in the cosmos together, and in both, elephants are associated with water and rainfall—the primordial givers of life to dust. They are also associated with Shiva and Parvati's son, Ganesha.

Unfortunately, in the 21st century, elephants are still endangered, hunted for their ivory, which continues to be valued in regions for jewelry and certain medicines.

Shown here: Mamallapuram, India, Freestanding elephant sculpture, Arjuna Rath rock-cut temple, south side. Image © 2024 Davis Art Images (10036).

11/28/2024

Wishing you warmth and joy this Thanksgiving! will be back next Thursday with a new episode of K12ArtChat!

11/26/2024

Introducing the newest title in our Art Education in Practice series: Ethical Decision-Making in Art Education by Cristina Bain, PhD!

How do art educators learn how to make effective professional decisions, especially when teaching encompasses diverse situations and environments? This book will help all art educators understand how beliefs and values form the cornerstone of ethical decision-making practice.

Learn more: https://hubs.ly/Q02ZzLMN0