CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/29/2014

Now Available: A New, Expanded Edition of the Teacher's Manual to 'In the Making'

We are pleased to announce a new, expanded PDF edition of the Teacher's Manual to In the Making: Creative Options for Contemporary Art!

When D.A.P. first published art historian, educator and curator Linda Weintraub's now-classic In the Making in 2003, a generation of studio art and art history teachers course adopted the book into an immediate second and third print run. Currently in its fifth printing, In the Making remains an essential textbook and visual resource for hundreds of college, university and private art programs across America and throughout the world.

Weintraub's accessible, utilitarian companion publication, the Teacher's Manual to In the Making , is now available in an updated third edition, offering completely revised texts for both Art History and Studio Art classes and an expanded selection of supporting art historical illustrations. At just under 150 pages, it is more than double the length of the second edition Teacher's Manual.

Weintraub writes, "If the text of In the Making is compared to a grand panorama of current artistic goals and strategies, then the Teacher's Manual can be compared to a force that breaks through the frame of discourse, shattering the screen separating observation/contemplation from participation/activation. The Manual extracts the principles manifested in the work of professional artists so that students can apply them to their own creative explorations. Within the Teaching Guide for Art History, for instance, the students are invited to contextualize these principles within concurrent socio-political events, or track their trajectories over time, or consider how they impact artistic style, etc. Likewise, the Teaching Guide for Studio Art untethers these principles from the category of 'previous accomplishments' and renames them 'prospects for accomplishment.' In both contexts, these principles serve as catalysts for the students’ original applications.

"The Art History component of this guide has been completely revamped. The new version provides a lavish offering of images. I have culled these exemplary works of art from a broad spectrum of art historical precedents to maximize opportunities for observing similarities and differences. Each comparison serves as a tool for defining concepts and demonstrating their application within a broader field of art historical inquiry.

"The new Studio Art component of the Teacher's Manual retains the mission of the original (to support the creative development of young artists), but greatly refines its means of accomplishing this mission. Its guiding principle is that existing works of art can become vital studio resources. Over the course of a semester, art students’ experiences of art historical examples are transformed from ‘vicarious’ to ‘primary,’ and from ‘empathetic’ to ‘catalytic.’ This required reframing each example presented in the text as a strategy available for adoption, not an accomplishment to be admired and analyzed. Each exercise, therefore, presents possible contributions to the students’ personal creative practices. Thus, these projects utilize art historical examples to propel the students’ own quests for a mission, an identity, etc."

Since the first edition of the Teacher's Manual was published in 2003, Weintraub has written the series, Avant-Guardians: Textlets in Art and Ecology (2007) and the major college textbook TO LIFE! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet (2012), enabling her to further refine her pedagogical methodology. As both teacher and curator, she has visited many dozens of art schools in order to experiment with new pedagogical approaches.

All of these experiences have been channeled into this document, available as PDF download.