Teaching Art in Nicaragua

180371490122421

Views: 320

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2016, Common Ground Research Networks, All Rights Reserved

Abstract

A central role of the art educator is to include community service learning as a part of art education as a powerful teaching and learning tool to prepare students to engage as global citizens. The growing understanding of the power of social service learning art projects to transcend cultures and bridge social and economic gaps has led some art teachers to embrace art instruction as a vehicle for social action in their curriculum. Along this background, this article considers the roles of art as a cross-cultural intervention tool addressing social and cultural disparities while working with at-risk children in Nicaragua. A group of U.S. graduate art students traveled to Leon in Nicaragua and designed and implemented art projects for at-risk children and youth in disenfranchised communities in collaboration with local school teachers and community leaders. This international service learning art project fostered social advocacy and multicultural sensitivity among the students, helping them to reflect on their experiences and apply their revised concept of civic engagement in their daily lives