During my fourteen years in the field of art education, I have had the opportunity to visit many art classrooms in New York State. For the most part, I have noticed a stagnation in the way art is being taught. Many teachers have not updated their curriculum in 30 years, and even brand new teachers are sticking closely to the same icons of Modernism-Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Dali, Pollack, and Warhol. Most teachers place a strong emphasis on developing naturalist techniques and skills for traditional media, adding to a stigma that leads to a child's decision about whether or not she is an artist. Projects are formulaic, students are given little individual choice and most projects look the same. Very few address new media being developed over the last fifty years, the conceptual side of art making that is so critical to contemporary art, or what it means to be an artist that responds critically to the world around us. The problem permeates the K-12 level and even the early college setting. At the same time, I hear countless teachers in awe of the cuts to their art programs. From an administrative standpoint, these programs isolate art, making no connections to the rest of the school curriculum and don't offer students a unique or valuable experience that has a real-world impact. Although it is not quite so cut and dry, and arts offer many valuable cognitive benefits, in many instances, agree with these administrators. There is a lack of education/experience for art teachers that limits considering or instating socially engaged curriculums. For the first 12 years of my teaching career, with 7 years of art school already under my belt and plenty of involvement with my local art scene, I had never heard the term "social practice." When I finally was introduced to the term and history, all that I had been interested in (in my own artwork and in my teaching) started to make sense. It was like finding a language that I had been struggling for all along. My own complete lack of education in this area is part of the reason for this book. It is my hope that I can help other teachers find that language and rich history as well. In this thesis (and excerpt of a larger writing project), I present a foundation that introduces art teachers (along with parents, students and artists) to a practical approach for creating a socially engaged art/curriculum that responds to the world around us. By focusing on my own observations in New York State and the writing of other art educators across the US observing similar problems, I discuss the why's and how's of creating a dynamic, responsive curriculum using contemporary art as a primary example. I present the problems of a skill-based approach to teaching art, create a bridge from more familiar art history to contemporary art that responds to ideas, and examine practical ways to create a responsive curriculum. Using Dewey's democratic approach to art making and other educators working in his legacy (Gude in particular, but also tying in Friere and educators), I outline a model for developing new curriculum within our existing educational system based on Dewey's principles of environment/experience, attention, and action.