Abstract Lillian Michiko Yano Blakey (b. 1945, Alberta, Canada) is a third-generation Japanese Canadian artist and a former art educator and education consultant. Her art works not only integrate critical multicultural perspectives but also provide educators with themes and types of art forms that challenge racism and promote a more equitable society. Co-written by Hyunji Kwon and Lillian Michiko Yano Blakey, this study first presents Yano Blakey's biography, intertwining her family story with the history of anti-Japanese racism in Canada. By employing deductive thematic analysis, this study analyzes her art works as embodiments of art education scholar Joni Acuff's critical multicultural art pedagogy. The study also outlines conceptual and practical implications for educators, encouraging them to guide their students in thinking critically and adopting similar approaches in appreciating and creating art.
Abstract We are four Taiwanese women artist-researcher-educators writing to you from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Living among lands, languages, and cultures distinct from our shared mother tongue, we keep our “Public Art Diary-Dialogue” (PADD) (2022–2024) as self-expression and to nurture a transnational feminist community in patriarchal U.S.-European contexts. Inspired by Shigeko Kubota's Broken Diary video project and transnational feminism, we develop TAP art pedagogy in PADD: Transnational Linguistic Freedom, Art (Ex)pression, and Prompts for Self-Reflection. We ask: In exploring how the personal becomes political by playing with the private and the public within our transnational stories, how can we integrate our embodied transnational knowledge into our art pedagogy? Through our three transnational feminist narratives, we articulate personal experiences intertwined with challenging external worlds through art. “Public Art Diary-Dialogue” captures the nuances of private-public boundaries across three nations and two languages, presenting a transnational public art diary-dialogue pedagogy in art education.
Abstract This article presents findings from a preliminary exploration of preservice art teachers’ perspectives on incorporating generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into art education. Through a GenAI workshop, participants engaged with GenAI technologies like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Craiyon to explore text-to-text and text-to-image applications. The results from pre- and post-surveys shed light on how these future art educators perceive the benefits and challenges of human-AI interaction in art education. Instead of resisting AI influences, the authors discuss ethical concerns, pedagogical considerations, and recommendations for future research. By empowering preservice art teachers, the authors aim to foster a forward-thinking approach to art education in the digital era.
Abstract In this article, I delve into the challenges and contemplations encountered as an art educator in China using the visual autoethnography method as a tool within a setting where art education policies diverge from teaching practices. Through the narrative of thematic collage works, I aim to express my true inner voice, resonate with art educators or related groups who have similar experiences, and propose effective strategies to alleviate the pressure and powerlessness of art teaching. The study also emphasizes the critical role of children's creative expression in their development and advocates for a more inclusive and supportive educational environment. Key findings suggest that visual autoethnography offers a powerful method for art educators to reflect on their teaching practice, address the challenges of children's art education, and propose strategies for fostering a nurturing and creative learning environment. Additionally, this research contributes to the broader discourse on art education by calling for educational practices that genuinely align with the needs and rights of children.
Abstract Based on the frameworks of Thirdspace theory, visual self-inquiry, and digital storytelling, this study reflects on the researcher's own visual journal, “Persistent Record Is My Strength: Devin's Drawing-Essay, Handspan Diary,” which has been shared and published via her blog and social media accounts since 2018. By introducing and analyzing her visual journal as a self-inquiry project, ongoing for 7 years, this study illustrates the researcher's experiences of linguistic, academic, and sociocultural adjustment, as well as her identity formation as a Korean doctoral student, underrepresented in higher education, through her everyday life. This study shows how arts-based self-inquiry can be incorporated into and connected and expanded to other, unexpected forms of sociocultural research as the researcher expands the work through digital platforms. Through such efforts, the researcher builds solidarity with other scholars and develops new collaborative projects. This study demonstrates the possibilities of qualitative research as scholars balance the roles of researchers, educators, and artists. This study demonstrates how arts-based research can act as “self-inquiry” that is not limited to merely satisfying reflection on an individual level, but instead becomes a call for community action as it produces ripple effects for activists and researchers in many fields.
Abstract Three-dimensional (3-D) printing, a male-dominated field, is also a process, medium, and form that feminist artists have explored to denounce patriarchal practices and hail critical social justice consciousness. In this article, two feminist art educators present pedagogical strategies to introduce feminist artists who work with 3-D printing, along with how to develop site-specific art lesson plans, using ChatGPT to assist in generating art lesson plans, for teaching 3-D printing as feminist activism. Issues of power, knowledge, and affect are central to a vast array of concerns that feminist artists, scholars, educators, and activist address, and are integral to the work of the feminist artists (e.g., Mary Visser, Marcy Milks, Amy Karle, Noga Karpel, Morehshin Allahyari, and Anousha Payne) included in our study. For example, the authors discuss Iranian-born U.S. artist Morehshin Allahyari, who considers her use of 3-D sculpting processes of reconstructing Iranian cultural treasures as feminist activism. In this article, we provide content, prompts, and strategies to teach 3-D printing inspired from feminist artists who use 3-D scanners and 3-D printers as tools of investigation in their art.
Abstract In September 2022, the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, allegedly for her non-compliance with the Islamic Republic's stringent hijab laws, reignited a global conversation on the suppression of women's rights under authoritarian and religious regimes. This paper explores the perilous intersections of gender, art, and activism within Iran's political and religious landscape. It considers what this means for research and publication about the visual art response to the present moment. It examines the unique role that artists and activists play in challenging systemic gender-based discrimination and advocating for women's rights in Iran. Through the lens of recent protests and the personal experiences of those daring to voice dissent, this study considers the risks faced by artists who confront and criticize the Iranian government's policies. We look into ways that Iranian women and the art community have resisted, the Islamic Republic's response, and the international community's role in helping those in danger. This paper addresses the ongoing suppression of freedom of expression and gender discrimination in Iran, where artists risk imprisonment or execution for speaking out. It underscores the urgent need for protecting those who advocate for basic human rights and gender equality through art in the face of authoritarian regimes. This paper offers an investigation linking historical developments to the issues that contemporary Iranian women, activists, and artivists face.
Abstract In this article, a much-needed spotlight introduces data visualization art practices for educators’ well-being. Just as social emotional needs and learning for students are emphasized in art classrooms, it is equally important to focus on art educators’ own emotional well-being and leverage art as a trauma-informed means to address their vulnerabilities. The intention is to provide examples of changes in respect to how mapping, through data visualization, has evolved to be more versatile and to address abstract concepts such as deeply felt emotions. Based on the two authors’ individual journeys, exploring their emotions, two distinct methods of data visualization are presented, emphasizing empowerment and self-care. These visual representations unveil intimate processes of cultivating awareness of the emotional needs of art educators and underscore the potential of data visualization being a transformative and creative process for self-care.
Abstract This study explores our duoethnographic visual journal, which we kept during the pandemic. To capture records of daily life from two different perspectives, we visualized and layered multiple narratives based on our collected everyday experiences. Similar to the process of art making, we identified several expression strategies and ways to establish relationships between images and text, collaboratively building layers of meaning within the duoethnographic visual journal. We suggest that the duoethnographic visual journal has meaningful effects on fostering creative expression, curating everyday moments, sharing diverse thoughts and perspectives openly, and deepening one's understanding of both self and others. By intertwining arts-based research and duoethnography, the duoethnographic visual journal creates a dialogic space for sharing stories of daily lived experiences.
Abstract In drawing five “pedagogical inspirations” from five pieces of conceptual art, this article explores ways that conceptual art can inspire pedagogical possibilities in classroom education. These include developing classroom practices that center senses beyond vision, working with how our texts change in our hands over time, and “inboundsing” pieces of learning experiences that are often covertly or overtly ignored. This article is based on inter- and trans-disciplinary research across art education, writing studies, philosophy, history, feminist studies, and other disciplines. It may be of interest to classroom teachers in secondary and postsecondary settings.
Abstract This second volume of this Visual Arts Research special issue invites manuscripts and creative works that employ innovative approaches to research and publishing within the context of art + design education. The contributions in this issue aim to push boundaries and offer fresh perspectives on how research can be articulated and shared in ways that better serve diverse audiences and encourage broader engagement within the field.
Abstract In this paper, the author discusses how creating and sharing an artist's book became a way to conduct autoethnographic inquiry around childhood experiences. Creating this artist's book became a way to share difficult experiences and derive meaning from those experiences.
Abstract As a progressive branch of qualitative research that draws from different expressive forms to understand social phenomena, visual arts research often relies upon conventional academic discourses and scholarly writing to discuss how it functions as a research methodology. Following this critique, this visual essay explores how to do visual art research through the expressive forms employed in the visual art research itself. For this visual essay, I self-reflexively analyze how I do wordless narrative research, a visual art research methodology that draws from the expressive storytelling capacity of wordless novels to understand social, cultural, and emotional experiences too subtle for language. Through a critically self-reflexive process, I question what it looks like when I am doing wordless narrative research and how I might use the expressive form of wordless storytelling to better understand this research process.
Abstract Re-imagining the dissertation as both a form and method of contemporary art holds transformative potential for creative research. Drawing from currere, traditional scholarship, poetic writing, and artistic practice, I explore how dissertation itself becomes processual; a living experience, rather than a fixed product. Through a deeply personal curriculum journey, I investigate the role of vulnerability as both mode and material, examining how personal history shapes pedagogy shapes artistic voice. I test the power of vulnerability to disrupt academic norms and generate radical transformation in educational spaces. Rather than positioning the dissertation as a fixed product, I frame it as an embodied, evolving process that honors complexity, emotion, imperfection, and imagination. In doing so, I invite educators, researchers, and artists to consider new possibilities for scholarly expression—where making meaning is as vital as making arguments, and where research becomes a work of art in itself.
Abstract In this visual essay, three graduate students explore their embodied approach to cultivating relationships to shift from a culture of competition to a culture of care within academia. This multimedia sculpture began as and is a culmination of a gathering that centered the experiential and process-based art. We look to friendship models characterized by collaboration, vulnerability, and support to resist the lone academic trope. The art-making process included the making and sharing of a meal, reflection poems, and a vessel reminiscent of a gift box, a symbol of our growing gift of friendship. The resulting project, To Gather Is a Gift: Reimagining Cohort, is thus a collaborative multimedia sculpture exploring how we can re-imagine and authentically embody an academic cohort. Our invitation is to create bonds beyond academia and celebrate multiple dimensions of our lives.
Abstract This article, written in collaboration between Language Arts teacher Lorry Stillman and Visual Art teacher Judy Novey investigates the relationship between the two disciplines when taught in an interdisciplinary classroom. Inspired by the possibilities of these two languages working in concert with each other, the design of the class was based on students creating one-of-a-kind artist's books (both two- and three-dimensional) that combined their own writing and artwork. The article emphasizes the reciprocity of form and content where literacy/ies in both disciplines work together. With photographic examples of student work referencing the visual art and writing, the authors discuss the representation of thematic ideas as they are developed with both disciplines. The authors consider the benefits of interdisciplinary teaching and learning as they examine the complexity of process and problem solving in using a radical approach to teaching the arts. The authors emphasize the personal relevance to students and the deep rewards of this style of teaching for both teachers and learners.
Abstract As Latinas/Chicanas, mujeres in academia, we creatively engage in framing and theorizing our lived experiences as extensions of pláticas, conversations about our shared experiences. We utilize a creative visual plática genre where we play and collaborate on the page using text, font, and other visual elements as a call-and-response performative piece, feeling forbidden A compilation of letters::::accolades::::letras y notas. Using Pláticas Feminist Methodology, we cross back and forth via text and visual performativity as we dialogue and share intimate parts of our lives, testimonios with each other. Anchored in Gloria Anzaldúa's theorizing, we center the Coyolxauhqui Imperative, the reorganizing of oneself as we simultaneously are rebuilding as we are deconstructing patriarchal patterns. Our collaborative process allows us to explore the many hats we wear, while intentionally seeking idealistic realities.
Abstract This creative piece traces the contours of a Walking Poem, an embodied, artful practice shaped by radical softness. Woven through footsteps and breath, this poetic form emerges as a living, breathing pedagogy, one that privileges noticing, feeling, and vulnerability as political acts. As artist-educators, we walk not just to move, but to feel, each step a verse, each pause a moment of reflection that (re)imagines the personal as pedagogical. This practice, grounded in a pedagogy of noticing, draws from conceptual art and arts-based educational research to honor the shared humanity of teachers and students navigating contested sites of schooling. Radical softness becomes our orientation, gently guiding how we see, feel, and teach. The Walking Poem resists the constraints of traditional academic structures, inviting those who encounter it to walk their own version, carrying softness as a method of inquiry and care. Through juxtaposed image and text, we navigate the delicate terrain between presence and impermanence, carving space for emotional expression, multiplicity, and communal storytelling.
Abstract The four authors created this teaching resource to promote art making as a means of engaging with others and harnessing the agency of materials and objects as collaborative partners. As a radical art teaching resource, the authors view “playing art” as provocations that remove boundaries traditionally existing in art curricula, such as focusing on developmental stages and predetermined outcomes contrived by authoritative adults. Instead, this resource highlights children's play trajectories as art making, such as inventing characters and games from their own aesthetic viewpoints. This teaching resource promotes thoughtfully designed spaces that encourage people of all skill levels to explore their imaginations while embracing unpredictable results. These spaces challenge the typical educational environment by introducing uncertainty as part of play and artistic creation. Inspiration is drawn from the children in the authors’ lives, honoring their imaginative and playful approaches to art and recognizing them as full collaborators in shaping the learning experiences.
