Exploring Asian Art and Visual Culture in the Community

Abstract

Both the ubiquity of Asian art and visual culture in most U. S. communities and my Asian immigrant background has motivated me to explore and seek ways to embrace teaching popular Asian images and objects we come across in many U. S. communities. To address this educational concern, I explore three approaches, which can serve as a useful guide to studying and teaching popular Asian images and objects in the art classroom. The three approaches set forth by Mitchell (historical/folkloric, functional/contextual, and critical), may be useful for students engaging in multicultural community-based research projects or gaining an intercultural experience to understand and appreciate Asian art and visual culture in their neighborhood and community.