“Christine Mulcahey’s watchwords are freedom, creativity, and imagination. . . . One can almost feel perspectives opening on her side of the looking glass as children’s voices break through the hush, and we come in touch with the unexpected.”
—From the Foreword by Maxine Greene, Teachers College, Columbia University

“This book has the capacity to have a profound impact on how art is viewed by educators by changing the art experience from one of insignificance to one that contributes greatly to the cognitive growth of the child.”
—Sharon Shaffer, Executive Director, Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center

“Early childhood teachers will find this well-written, engaging, and easy-to-read book to be a gift! It makes sense of current research on early childhood and art and speaks to many common insecurities with easy-to-implement suggestions for the classroom.”
—Cathy Topal, Smith College

“In the tradition of Geraldine Dimondstein and W. Lambert Brittain, Christine Mulcahey shares wise counsel gleaned from conversations with young children about the art they make and the art that they encounter in richly varied preschool programs.”
—Christine Marmé Thompson, Pennsylvania State University

When children look at works of art they tell stories, share experiences, imagine, and explore. This book provides teachers with the skills, and freedom, to design rich and open-ended art experiences for young children. The author looks at the work of a variety of artists and offers guidance for using these artworks as taking-off points for conversations and creativity with a range of materials. She demonstrates that using fine art reproductions in the early childhood curriculum allows children to construct their own meanings, teaches diversity, fosters thinking skills, and encourages storytelling. The text includes lesson plans, examples of activities, and photographs of children working and interacting with each other and with works of art. Based on the NAEYC and NAEA standards, this teacher-friendly resource provides:

• Numerous examples of open-ended arts experiences using reproductions of fine art from many different genres, periods, cultures, and sources.
• Lesson plans containing several art concepts to be used with children according to their developmental readiness.
• Easy-to-implement lesson ideas designed to encourage teachers to create their own to fit in with their regular early childhood curriculum.

Christine Mulcahey is a professor at Rhode Island College where she is an art specialist at the Henry Barnard Laboratory School, teaching art to children from pre-school to fifth grade.