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Abstract
The role of the visual arts in early childhood education has long been recognised and valued as an essential component of the curriculum. The project featured in this writing stems from a collaborative relationship forged between a non‐profit, community‐based early education centre and community arts centre. As a result of this collaborative relationship, an experimental, early childhood artist‐in‐residence programme was initiated. The primary objective of this research intervention was to develop a rich description of the process of implementing an artist‐in‐residence programme in a pre‐kindergarten classroom. Findings from this research demonstrate that artist‐in‐residence programmes can serve to strengthen existing arts curricula in early childhood classrooms. In this research, the establishment of a collaborative, open relationship between the classroom teacher and the artist‐in‐residence supported the transformation of existing, craft‐focused art practices to meaningful arts experiences that drew upon art‐viewing, art‐making and aesthetic experiences.
Notes
1. The community child care centre, located in the southern USA, was originally founded in the 1960s to provide a quality preschool education for African‐American children in the area as they prepared to enter the newly integrated school system. Today, the centre’s mission is to foster an environment of care and diversity among the 70 children enrolled full/part day.
2. All participant names have been substituted with pseudonyms to protect confidentiality.
3. Kathleen described her typical art projects as tempera painting at the easel or collage‐based projects where students replicated a model created by Kathleen.