A Look Inside The IPaintMyMind Arts Education Curriculum & Resource Guide

This is an exclusive sneak peek into a one-of-a-kind arts education resource, The IPaintMyMind Arts Education Curriculum & Resource Guide: A Comprehensive Creative Experience for e-Learning, Hybrid Learning, and Homeschooling. This 77+ page booklet used to be available only as a partnered resource as part of our Shared Walls™ program. 

However, given the patchwork state of arts education across the country as we enter this new school year during a pandemic, we have decided to make it available to art teachers and administrators all over the country to become a part of their curriculum. 

This curriculum power-building resource is super flexible, and perfect for an evolving and think-on-your-feet school year, unlike any other. More than just giving you ideas and tools to maximize the potential of your arts education, this download is a plug-n-play arts curriculum for flexible learning environments.

Didn’t know how you’d teach art this semester, this is how!! Purchase yours to gain instant access.

What The Guide Includes 

Three Phases of Arts Learning

• This pathway is called ‘See, Think, Do.’ or ‘Experience, Reflect, Make.’ and is central to activating young people to participate in the creative process by first engaging and reflecting, before making art of their own.

20+ Prompts and 18 Arts Activities & Lesson Plans Intended for Active Learning

• Explore themes and this sequence of activation by unpacking the prompts laid our in each phase of learning
• Make art through innovative activities that minimize the need for supplies while also connecting the process of creativity to the way art lives in the real world

Customizable Framework

• We’ve outlined a few timelines to roll out the entire curriculum below, but it’s absolutely customizable to any schedule or frequency of interaction

Treasure Trove of Arts Engagement Resources

• Small Group Activities, Artist Process Videos, Artist Interviews, Articles for Educators &  Parents, and more.

The IPMM Pathway of Activation: See, Think, Do

The core of the guide is IPaintMyMind’s pathway of activation for arts education: See, Think, Do. This revolving door concept uses existing art and artists as a springboard to inspire your students to create artwork of their very own. In our Shared Walls™ program, this starts with the unique gallery we install at each school, handpicked from our permanent collection. 

If you have purchased the Art Guide as a standalone resource, whichever artist and art pieces you choose as a starting point are totally up to you. We recommend using the work of an artist who has cultural similarities to your students. Maybe they share a hometown, ethnic identity, or elements of a back story. 

At IPMM, we strongly believe in the power of representation. If students see artists that look like them or come from the places they do, making powerful and impactful art, then they will believe in their own power to do the very same. 

The ultimate goal of our Art Guide is to stimulate a Student Art Gallery project, where students’ art is hung in the school in an art gallery set-up. When children see their art elevated and appreciated in this way, it validates their experiences, creativity, and boundless potential. That’s the power of see, think, do. 

Our Very Flexible Curriculum, Totally Customizable

There are three phases to our proposed curriculum. 

The first phase explores the art work of the chosen artist, thinking about its visual qualities, and the medium that it is made in. This phase can be used to develop techniques and art vocabulary, and to encourage students to be creative and personal in the way that they talk about art. 

The second phase establishes context. This is where you teach the history of the art movement, the artist’s biography, and the social conditions that the art was created within. Students can draw parallels with their own experiences,  as well as understanding how things have changed. When looking at the source artwork in this phase, students consider it in a whole new light, thinking about why the artist made the choices they did, and what possible meanings could arise. 

The third and final phase is creating and presenting the finished art works in the student art gallery. Each of the phases are chock full of prompts and suggested art activities, and you are encouraged to adapt them to your specific classroom and its culture. 

Every Art Classroom Is Different, and Your Curriculum Has To Be Too

The timeline of this curriculum is infinitely customizable, because at IPMM we understand the diversity of school funding, programming, staffing, and standardization. We wanted to create something that would work for you, no matter where you are. 

That’s why we provide three sample timelines in the Art Guide, as a way to showcase just a few of the possible expressions of our project. These timelines are hypothetical and can be used strictly or used as inspiration for crafting your own finely tuned timeline.

Bonus Fun!

Finally, we’ve included what we like to call A La Carte Art Resources: fun and accessible information and ideas to expand on your unit, semester, or year. These bonus resources enrich the content of our Art Guide and make it infinitely recyclable and remixable. 

• IPaintMyMind partner artist list and contacts 
• Artist interviews
• Helpful resources
• Field Trip Ideas (All over the country!)

To Wrap It Up…

Art education in America has a lot of barriers. We know this, and we’re intimately familiar with how these barriers can disrupt and dilute effective art education. We’re here for you, and we want you and your students to succeed. This Art Guide has been developed by folks who have worked in some of the most underfunded public schools in the country, and we promise that it is useful, accessible, and inclusive of every art classroom out there. 

Purchase your Downloadable Interactive 77-page PDF for just $199 and get instant access!

Here is another link to purchase the curriculum on a very well-known and often used platform for resources for teachers, Teachers Pay Teachers.