Art for Daily Living

The Story of the Owatonna Art Education Project

Authors:

Edwin Ziegfeld and Mary Elinore Smith

Art for Daily Living was first published in 1944. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Art education has faced two great crises in one decade–first the depression and now the war. Out of the chaos and destruction of the early 1930’s came a critical evaluation of educational practices, which challenged art as it was being taught in the schools. the Owatonna Art Education Project was developed to help evolve a sound art education program that could justify itself educationally and financially as an indispensable part of education.

Believing that art plays an integral part in the life of every human being, the late Melvin E. Haggerty, dean of the College of Education and the University of Minnesota, obtained a grant from the Carnegie Foundation to develop a new approach to the teaching of art in the public schools–and approach based on the study of a typical Midwestern community and its use of art in everyday living.

Edwin Ziegfeld was a professor of fine arts at Columbia University, a founder of the International Society for Education Through Art, and the first president of the National Arts Education Association.

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