History of the NAB Project: The Beginning
1986 - 1989
1986: The New Art Basics project began in the summer of 1986 with 13 dedicated and enthusiastic art teachers from throughout Iowa. They had joined together and asked the Iowa State University art education faculty to share their research and help them make art more basic in their school systems. Each teacher persuaded their school district to buy a $250 share in this cooperative curriculum research and staff development project with the Department of Art and Design at Iowa State University. In four weeks, that first summer, over 300 original strategy ideas were created. Compiled in a loose-leaf notebook, these strategies were initially tested during the 1986-87 school year.
1987: The enthusiasm of the first year teachers made it easy to enroll additional groups of art teachers in each summer since 1986. Through teachers spreading the word to other teachers about NAB, the project has grown into an ever larger coalition of professional art teachers, now covering several states, working in partner ship with Iowa State University art education faculty and consultants, on curriculum and staff development, utilizing advanced electronic telecommunications technology.
History Home
1990 - 1996: Development of an electronic network