ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to define art criticism, to dentify best practices for teaching students art criticism inquiry methods and to develop instructional resources for teaching art criticism and explains its purpose in the choice-based art curriculum. The choice-based art curriculum is a resource to challenge students as dynamic learners who can actively examine and question art’s meaning. Art criticism, like aesthetics, enhances students’ verbal and reasoning skills as they articulate viewpoints that move beyond “yes” and “no” answers. Some scholars restructured E. B. Feldman’s original art criticism model to include relevant contextual information. Socially driven art criticism promotes equality and understanding by addressing real-world topics, including politics, ethnicity, gender issues, class, and economic struggles. The choice-based art curriculum provides students with a wealth of comprehensive learning tasks that promote inquiry. Spotlight on Student Art describes how students studied their class’ cultures through art criticism to learn more about their collective identities and hear multicultural perspectives.
