Review
Introducing Nisha Nair’s “Art Sparks” Marta Cabral
N
isha Nair dedicates time in her art lessons to “enable children to imagine” (p. 44). Through her book “Art Sparks: Ideas. Methods. Process.” she helps us all do the same. Every page prompts me as a reader to imagine and reimagine what an art lesson can be. This book guides readers through a 12-lesson puppet-making art unit for children around 11 years of age—children that the author herself taught in a low-fee private school in rural Karnataka, India.
Nair achieves this by carefully organizing the book into sections, each dedicated to a specific aspect of her students’ learning. After a brief explanation of each aspect, she presents us with the dialogues she had had with her students, featuring her prompts and questions. She shares many of the children’s ideas, answers and suggestions as well. Throughout her book, the author provides numerous “useful pedagogical asides” (p. 9) to ground some of the choices she makes in each of the lessons she describes. Clear and specific guidelines for teachers, and notes on the reasoning behind each lesson’s focus, also help the reader to potentially plan their own art lessons and understand and support colleagues as they do so. Bookending the 12-lesson unit there are two short sections, an introduction and a
Tara Books
Rather than laying out a sequence of lessons and encouraging teachers to merely replicate the unit out of context, this book is a tour of an experience that invites readers to be inspired and empowered to create their own lessons and units.
conclusion, that offer a solid context for the book. These sections substantiate Nair’s writing by highlighting the importance of enriching art education experiences for children, presenting relevant characteristics of their artistic development, and offering a clear and cogent description of the elements of a strong process-based arts education program. In addition, the author describes common challenges encountered in the implementation of quality arts education programs as well as suggestions to overcome these. This book is not only a look back onto a workshop conducted in the past. On the contrary, a final ’Going Forward’ section
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