What is ARThematics?

ARThematics = art that uses mathematical concepts. For over 10 years, Stefanie Mandelbaum developed and taught numerous ARThematics workshops for students and teachers in the New York tri-state area. Stefanie has had remarkably successful results utilizing art projects to help students learn math.

ARThematics Plus extends the math/art concept into language arts, world cultures, music, dance, architecture, science and culinary arts. Most of these projects were developed by Jacqueline Guttman, an arts educator who has written numerous curriculum guides for in-school arts residency programs.

ARThematics Plus: Integrated Projects in Math, Art and Beyond was published in 2003 and updated in 2015. While it focuses on grades 4-6, many of the lessons can be easily adapted for other grades. ARThematics Plus is divided into two major sections: Shapes, Symbols and Symmetry and Pondering Proportions. Explicit math/art lesson plans introduce and reinforce topics ranging from basic arithmetic to Fibonacci numbers  and basic geometry to Escher-like tessellations.

Each chapter contains an overview, a list of materials, a math-art activity and follow-up “tangents.” Glossaries, original illustrations and lists of additional resources and websites are also included. Designed to help teachers comply with NCTM Standards, the lessons engage students by demonstrating abstract mathematical concepts through the creation of works of art. 

We hope as well that the Arthematics activities will enable students to understand the relationships between math, art and the larger universe.