Engaging Students through Narrative Painting

Teaching painting in a small art program comprised primarily of graphic design students, I was sometimes frustrated by a lack of enthusiasm for my required Painting II course from students who often had a limited interest in painting to begin with. Consequently, I have, over time, shifted the course from a formal, skills-based approach to one with a major emphasis on content. I’ve devised assignments that compel students to explore their own attitudes about timely and/or personal topics. By giving them the latitude to broadly interpret the assigned themes, I found that my students’ level of engagement and interest in the painting process has increased dramatically. My presentation will detail several successful models through which students develop narrative content to communicate key ideas.