Offers a comprehensive introduction to new ways of thinking about the place of art, play, and aesthetics in the lives and education of young children

Combines perspectives on practice and research grounded in contemporary critical and poststructuralist theories
Draws on childhood studies, the new sociology of childhood, early childhood education, and art education
Includes stories of children experiencing art in social settings, in dialogue with materials, peers, and adults

Acknowledgements.- Introduction, Christine Marmé Thompson & Christopher Mark Schulte.- The emergence of the early childhood studio as an event-full place, Sylvia Kind.- "A cool place where we can make stuff": Co-creating relational spaces of muchness, Jaye Johnson Thiel.- "Now we all look like Rapunzels": Drawing in a kindergarten writing journal, Leslie Rech.- Artistic encounters: Ethical collaborations between children and adults, Shana Cinquemani.- Fighting the Mad King: Play, art, and adventure in an early childhood art studio, Marta Cabral.- Sensitive and supportive interactions: Tuning into children's requests for help during artmaking, Rosemary Richards.- Children's play and art practices with agentic objects, Marleena Mustola.- Digital aesthetic and multidimensional play in early childhood, Linda Knight.- Beyond screen time: Aesthetics of digital playscapes for young children, Marissa McClure Sweeny.- Circumspection in early childhood classrooms: Ontological forays into questioning, being, and making, Heather Kaplan.- A playful event awaiting just a-stone's throw away, Charles Garoian.- Mothering as a feminist aesthetics of existence, Laura-Trafi-Prats.- The will-to-Research children's drawing, Christopher M. Schulte.- Dancing rainbows, naughty rainbows: Reflections on teaching learning and research in the arts with young children, Patricia Tarr.