SQUAD Art Studio: An Alternative Community-Based Multisite Saturday Art Lab School for Negotiating Theory and Practice in Early Childhood Art Education With Preservice Art Educators and Digital Media

Abstract

In this article, I share how SQUAD Art Studio functions as an alternative, community-based, multisite Saturday art lab school for negotiating theory and practice with preservice art educators. SQUAD Art Studio educators’ work confronts developmentalist images of children and preconceptions about young children and digital media. We revalue images of children and digital media as we situate them within broader conversations in early childhood studies and art education. We diffract developmentalist images of children as we consider digital media from a feminist new materialist perspective. Our work intervenes in our institutional context. We offer physical and digital sites dedicated to research and practice in early childhood education art that supplant taken-for-granted attitudes toward children, their art, and digital media. In this article, I provide specific outcomes to suggest approaches for art teacher educators who struggle to connect the richness of contemporary theory with the practical constraints within which they work.

Acknowledgments

I acknowledge the preservice educators who contributed to this piece, the children and familes who participated in our experiences, and the community sites and artists who have supported SQUAD Art Studio during the past 4 years and the unforeesable challenges that they have brought. I am grateful for your perseverance and for your willingness to take risks and to engage in honest, open, and responsive reflection with one another as a supportive and inclusive community of colearners. Thank you!

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).