A summer thinking reading suggestion: musings on artful possibilities in teaching art. (All levels).

As you wind down from a busy year of teaching art and all that responsibility entails, consider for your summer reading The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. Ben, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, teacher and communicator, pairs up with his wife Roz, therapist, coach, landscape painter, and writer. In focusing on perception, framing and reframing life experience, the Zanders' remarkable collaborative book addresses so much of what we art teachers continually engage in while making and teaching art.

The Zanders' book promotes "practices" that foster creativity, affirmation and transformation, citing a wide range of possibilities using examples in music performance and everyday living. Many of the chapters closely parallel the art teaching business such as: "It's All Invented," "Stepping into a Universe of Possibility," "Giving an A, ""Being a Contribution," "Lighting a Spark," and "Telling the WE Story."

Considering Rituals and Roles

In the wake of numerous issues and conflicts within the field of art education, including issues such as the evisceration of the visual arts, creativity, discipline-based art education, multiculturalism, postmodernism and visual culture, and especially in these troubled times, art teachers might follow, and help their students follow, the authors' advice: "In the face of difficulty, we can despair, get angry ... or choose possibility."

The Art of Possibility invites us to muse on the artful rituals we use to teach art in an increasingly visual world. After all, many of our conventional art terms such as "portfolio" are readily used now to organize and record progress in learning and professional achievement as well as financial assets. Traditionally, when embarking on a drawing experience, the student artist's very first choice was whether to hold the paper horizontally or vertically--in today's digital world, page set-up as "portrait" or "landscape" is common knowledge.

Art teachers' multi-dimensional and complex roles are certainly comparable to that of orchestra conductors. Elliot Eisner has written about how the teacher "orchestrates" the classroom dialogue. Amy Brook Snider has drawn upon the idea of "teaching as performance." In her education programs at Pratt Institute, she has made the connection between play and performance to enhance the creative process as well as highlight the performative aspects of teaching. Peter London has implied "Giving an A" in stating "What we wish to cultivate is fullness of engagement, rather than correctness of effort."

Reframing and Renewal

In guiding visual practice for students of all age levels, I've always used a couple of rules for "possibility" that students could also use in their everyday lives:

1. If you make a mistake, turn it into a surprise! HINT: If you stay with a task, your efforts can be affirmed, salvaged, and often successfully redirected.

2. Use all your (given) space, regardless of size! HINT: Whether composing a postage-size sticker, dancing on a stage or playing basketball on a court, empower yourself by going to the limits.

As art teachers, we can truly bring students to a world of possibility by re-framing learning experiences, using humor and purpose. I'll never forget how my students laughed at the end of a lesson about negative space when I reminded them to tell their parents what they did in class: "Today, I drew nothing." And, they enjoyed learning about adornment when I came in wearing heaps of necklaces and pins, took all of them off and started over with different elements, actively soliciting their aesthetic opinions. From this demonstration, students quickly realized that what you leave out is as important as what you include before they proceeded to mindfully decorate their empty box surfaces. Finally, all of my fifth graders fully "embraced" the principles and skills of contour line drawing once I helped them realize how this important skill would serve them in the future: to improve their driving abilities!

Visual metaphors for teaching and living artistically abound and await our consideration. Draw fully on the time away from your classrooms and have a renewing summer--read, sketch, paint, sculpt, photograph, dream, and muse ...on the art of possibility.

   "When I met my muse
   I glanced at her and took my glasses off--They
   were still singing
   They buzzed like a locust on the coffee table
   And then ceased.
   Her voice bellied forth, and the sunlight bent.
   I felt the ceiling arch, and knew
   the nails up there
   took a new grip on whatever they touched.
   `I am your way of looking at things' she said.
   `When you allow me to live with you,
   every glance you take at the world around you
   Will be a source of salvation.'
   And very slowly, I reached out-And
   I took her hand."

   --William Stafford

Renee Sandell is a professor of art education at the Mar?land Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.