Art Education Beyond the Classroom : Pondering the Outsider and Other Sites of Learning

The subjects of this book belong to a population that is marginalized and isolated. They are children and adults with disabilities - artists who make art in special classrooms, prisons, rural back roads, backwaters, and institutions. By focusing on this population, editor and key author Alice Wexler provides a common thread that unites traditionally separate fields of art criticism, art education, and art therapy. With firsthand experience in the field, each contributor to this volume offers critical research which challenges the non-transferable divide between us and them, encouraging art teachers, therapists, critics,and general readers alike to uncover their biases regarding the nature of art and education. "The subjects of this book belong to a population that is marginalized and isolated. They are children and adults with disabilities--artists who make art in special classrooms, prisons, rural back roads, backwaters, and institutions. By focusing on this population, editor and key author Alice Wexler provides a common thread that unites traditionally separate fields of art criticism, art education, and art therapy. With firsthand experience in the field, each contributor to this volume offers critical research which challenges the non-transferable divide between us and them, encouraging art teachers, therapists, critics, and general readers alike to uncover their biases regarding the nature of art and education. "--Provided by publisher. "This compendium engages art critics, art educators, and art therapist in a conversation about artists with disabilities in non-traditional settings. For the sake of clarity, this population is subsumed under the term "Outsider."The idiosyncratic, often passionate and self-taught nature of "Outsider" art has captured the interest of the members of these fields, posing provocative questions about the social order and its inherent exclusion. What the authors hope to arrive at is not further division, but rather a continuum suitable for the human condition"--Provided by publisher By focusing on children and adults with disabilities, each contributor offers critical research which challenges the non-transferable divide between us and them, encouraging art teachers, therapists, critics, and general readers alike to uncover their biases regarding the nature of art and education. The subjects of this book belong to a population that is marginalized and isolated. They are children and adults with disabilities - artists who make art in special classrooms, prisons, rural back roads, backwaters, and institutions. By focusing on this population, editor and key author Alice Wexler provides a common thread that unites traditionally separate fields of art criticism, art education, and art therapy. With firsthand experience in the field, each contributor to this volume offers critical research which challenges the non-transferable divide between us and them, encouraging art teachers, therapists, critics, and general readers alike to uncover their biases regarding the nature of art and education Front Matter....Pages i-xx The Messages of Linda Persson....Pages 1-6 Working with the Young Outsider Artist: Appropriation, Elaboration, and Building Self-Narrative....Pages 7-30 How Do You Get to Prospect Avenue?....Pages 31-46 Young and Disabled in Harlem: Making Art Like It Matters....Pages 47-69 The Art of Living and Dying: Linda Montano....Pages 71-91 Truth, Goodness, and Beautiful Art: Set Free in the Penitentiary....Pages 93-116 Following the Siren’s Song: Scott Harrison and the Carousel of Happiness....Pages 117-134 Digital Ethnography: Artists Speak from Virtual Ability Island in Second Life....Pages 135-158 Outside the Outside: In the Realms of the Real (Hogancamp, Johnston, and Darger)....Pages 159-185 Back Matter....Pages 187-194