What Do Kids Want to Talk About? Middle School Discussions About Contemporary Art

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Abstract

This paper documents a study of rural middle school aged students’ interest in contemporary art discussions. A university art education professor, acting as guest teacher/researcher, led discussions at the invitation and with the collaboration of the school’s visual art instructor. Images discussed included traditional sculpture, popular prints, work from ART 21 (art21.org) and from the 2017 Documenta and Venice Biennale contemporary art shows. A final analysis showed that the middle school students were most interested in artwork and subsequent discussions that informed them of world events and prepared them for informed agency in an adult world.

Author

• Connie Stewart, University of Northern Colorado