The creator of the Anti-Coloring Book series explains how to encourage creativity among preschool-age children, discussing the positive influence of a child's artistic growth on their intellectual and emotional development and offering a variety of age-appropriate activities to facilitate a youngster's artistic skills.

Young at Art is a practical guide to playbuilding for teachers working with students at an upper primary and secondary level. Focusing on an area often neglected in traditional drama text books, the book covers the process of devising drama, and the teacher’s role in facilitating students to collectively become playwrights, actors, designers, directors and critics of their ensemble work. An essential guide for all drama teachers Young at Art covers practical teaching issues and strategies for working with groups of students to help them perform their playbuilt stories to an audience, as well as techniques for student assessment and evaluation, providing a wealth of exemplary starting points and approaches. The book offers detailed guidance on working with students to help facilitate the collaborative creative and reflective processes, offering practical ideas and structures which can be easily implemented in the classroom.

"Invites the reader to take a closer look at works of art while pointing out tiny details hidden in famous works, providing information about a work or an artist, or explaining the techniques used to create the piece."--Publisher.

From the creator of the bestselling Anti-Coloring Book series with more than 600,000 copies sold, a new parenting guide to encouraging creativity in preschool-age children Young at Art is the first and only comprehensive book for the general audience about the nature, value and impact of art on very young children. Directed towards parents and educators of one to five year olds, Susan Striker explains why children's art is not a frill, but the very foundation upon which all later fundamental skills are built. She drives home the idea that encouraging children's artistic growth will have beneficial effects on all other aspects of their emotional and intellectual development. At the core of this practical guide is the understanding that art is an important tool in teaching young children crucial concepts related to self-expression, reading and writing. As opposed to more structured exercises, such as coloring on dittos and underlining pictures in workbooks, Striker stresses that scribbling and free drawing experiments are the most important art activities a child can engage in; they better prepare children to read independently as they grow. Young at Art provides descriptions for age-appropriate art activities, tips for carrying them out safely, and helps parents recognize what a child's art work should look like at each stage of development. With Young at Art, parents will develop realistic expectations of their children's work, learn how to speak to their children about their art, and facilitate skills well beyond their creativity that will benefit children.

"Jonathan Fineberg captures in words the reality, delight, and imagination of children's art. He is a visionary, as are so many of the artists he cites in this important book."--Agnes Gund, President Emerita, Museum of Modern Art

Almost all of us would agree that the experience of art is deeply rewarding. Why this is the case remains a puzzle; nor does it explain why many of us find works of art much more important than other sources of pleasure. Art and Knowledge argues that the experience of art is so rewarding because it can be an important source of knowledge about ourselves and our relation to each other and to the world. The view that art is a source of knowledge can be traced as far back as Aristotle and Horace. Artists as various as Tasso, Sidney, Henry James and Mendelssohn have believed that art contributes to knowledge. As attractive as this view may be, it has never been satisfactorily defended, either by artists or philosophers. Art and Knowledge reflects on the essence of art and argues that it ought to provide insight as well as pleasure. It argues that all the arts, including music, are importantly representational. This kind of representation is fundamentally different from that found in the sciences, but it can provide insights as important and profound as available from the sciences. Once we recognise that works of art can contribute to knowledge we can avoid thorough relativism about aesthetic value and we can be in a position to evaluate the avant-garde art of the past 100 years. Art and Knowledge is an exceptionally clear and interesting, as well as controversial, exploration of what art is and why it is valuable. It will be of interest to all philosophers of art, artists and art critics.

Young at Art is a practical guide to playbuilding for teachers working with students at an upper primary and secondary level. Focusing on an area often neglected in traditional drama text books, the book covers the process of devising drama, and the teacher’s role in facilitating students to collectively become playwrights, actors, designers, directors and critics of their ensemble work. The playbuilding process is covered in a structured manner, which includes: Mapping the Territory: identifying critical issues relating to teaching and learning in playbuilding, and laying the basic foundations of understandings and practice. Levels at Work: offering three approaches to playbuilding, catering for a range of learning experiences. Playbuilding for All: explores theatre practitioners’ techniques, working with students’ personal stories and narratives and playbuilding with a contemporary edge. An essential guide for all drama teachers Young at Art covers practical teaching issues and strategies for working with groups of students to help them perform their playbuilt stories to an audience, as well as techniques for student assessment and evaluation, providing a wealth of exemplary starting points and approaches. The book offers detailed guidance on working with students to help facilitate the collaborative creative and reflective processes, offering practical ideas and structures which can be easily implemented in the classroom.