It’s Time for Arts Madness with Kyle Wood! (Ep. 505)

What happens when you combine March Madness with art history? You get Arts Madness, a 64-artist, bracket-style tournament that transforms art history into a student-driven debate filled with upsets and passionate arguments that can engage your students.

In this episode of Art Ed Radio, Tim Bogatz welcomes back Kyle Wood to talk about how his version of Arts Madness has grown from a simple bulletin board idea into a nationwide classroom tradition, and why this year might be the biggest and best tournament he’s ever done.

If you’ve ever struggled to get students invested in art history, this episode is packed with ideas to spark curiosity, ownership, and authentic engagement.

Full episode transcript below.

Resources and Links

• • Join the Art of Ed Community
  • See Kyle in the Draw the Line YouTube series
  • Give a listen to the Who Arted? Podcast
  • Also check out Fun Facts Daily

Transcript

Tim:

Welcome to Art Ed Radio, the podcast for art teachers. This show is produced by the Art of Education and I’m your host, Tim Bogatz.

All right, I am genuinely excited for today’s episode. Kyle Wood is here to talk about arts madness. It’s his annual bracket style art tournament where 64 artists go head to head and students debate and vote and converse and argue their way to a champion. And it’s very cool because what started as just kind of a quick idea has

honestly grown into something huge. It’s an annual tradition at this point and it sparks so many great conversations. it builds investment for kids in art history and sometimes we’ll even get reluctant learners talking about artists like Lee Krasner and Maya Lin and Hokusai and even artists that Kyle brings in from outside the traditional canon that add a lot of fun to the conversation. So if you’re ever struggling to get students invested in art history, I think today’s conversation can maybe give you a little bit of a different approach as Kyle takes art history and makes it a little more exciting, a little bit more like March Madness. And this year he has gone all in.

There is a full web app that visualizes the bracket and it embeds his podcast episodes from who arted, for some instant learning and it tallies the votes and gives you immediate feedback. All of that is awesome. It’s really at a whole new level here. So I’m really excited to talk with him about that along with some other strategies.

about teaching some instructional cues that can really help and why that immediate feedback can really help students and help their engagement. So let me bring Kyle on to talk about the tournament, everything that’s coming and all that goes into arts madness.

Okay, Kyle Wood is joining me now. Kyle, welcome back to the show. How are you?

Kyle:

I am doing well. Thank you so much for having me back. I’m really excited to get the opportunity to like talk and nerd out about art and all that.

Tim:

Yeah, I always appreciate the opportunity to talk about arts madness because I love it as you know, I’m a huge basketball fan Also a huge art history fan. And so when we can combine these things, I love it so much. You’ve been on the podcast a ton. Most people know you but we’re always getting new listeners. So Can we start with a quick introduction? Can you tell us about you? Your teaching your work with the art of ed and then most importantly your arts madness tournament?

Kyle:

Okay, so I am a K-5 teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. I’ve lived in and around Chicago my whole life and yet somehow I don’t call it Chicago. I call it Chicago. Don’t know how I missed the accent, but that’s just how I roll. Honestly, it was the coolest thing ever to get to write for the Art of Ed and I did some video stuff with them too.

probably seen me on the YouTube channels doing the Draw the Line series was pretty cool. We talked about classroom management. I’ve written, I don’t know, probably like 30 or 40 articles in the archives.

Tim:

There’s dozens of articles at this point.

Kyle:

Yeah, so it’s been it’s been amazing to get to be a part of that for the last I guess two years just because like I Don’t know you guys were there for me when I was like a new teacher like I remember I go back to To art ed radio and like those days listening to you and Andrew talk about stuff like on my morning commute as I was trying to figure out like what am I gonna do back when I was a new teacher and like yeah

It is so cool to get to be a part of the other end of that now that I have some, you know, experience, I guess.

Tim:

Yeah, some ideas to share. This is your way of paying it forward.

Kyle:

I hope so, hope so. Otherwise, you I apologize to everyone who has had to listen to me prattle on for so many days.

Tim:

If you didn’t have good ideas, I wouldn’t keep inviting you back on the podcast. So I think that’s fair. So tell us about arts madness, though. Like, how did it start? What are we looking forward to this year? And I guess, you know, just what is it for people who might not be familiar?

Kyle:

Okay, so for those who follow college sports every spring, we have a tournament March Madness. It is 64 different teams playing the sports ball and somebody wins, I guess. So one year, I don’t know, I don’t know how it like finally clicked for me, but I was like walking into class and I saw a kid in a jersey and, you know, heard them talking about

March Madness and for whatever reason I just thought I should totally be doing something about this and so during my prep period that day I like quickly printed out a bunch of pictures and like put stuff up on my my bulletin board and you know just made a tournament where kids voted for their favorite every week and like instantly it was a hit in the classroom instantly like I knew something was really right about this because

It got those kids who seldom paid attention to anything I was talking about with art history. All of a sudden talking about like, you know, I can’t believe Lee Krasner beat Jackson Pollock. And then when I dropped the bomb that like it was his wife, you know, like audible gasps. And so I knew like this has to be an annual tradition. And so so this year, actually, I

This year, I actually tried to put in a few that I think would be really fun to see. So I’ve got like Elaine versus Willem de Kooning. I usually would try to do like a random sort on the brackets, but this year I wanted to just like put up some of those matches, not all of them, but some of them.

Tim:

You’re going to manufacture some drama is what you’re saying.

Kyle:

I couldn’t resist it because if I’m being 100 % honest, this might be the last year that I do this, at least on this scale. I think at the end of this tournament, I’ve been running the Who Arted podcast for a long time. I think I might be…

ready to like slow down and take a little bit of a break. So I thought this year I want to make it the biggest and best ever. And so I spent my whole winter break working on developing a web app for this to make it like the best version that I could ever imagine.

Tim:

Okay, I want to hear about this. First of all, thank you for breaking the news on this podcast. This might be the last year for it. Also a bigger thank you for just putting all of the time that you do into this, because it gets so many teachers and so many kids into art history. I think that’s a wonderful thing and every year we really, really enjoy it.

Let me ask about this web app that you’re doing and like what what inspired you to do this rather than just sticking with traditional voting? You know what you’ve been doing. What made you think? I really need to build my own web app for this.

Kyle:

Okay, so, you know, I often will say like, it’s no big thing, you know, and then as I’m describing it, people are like, yeah, I’m just gonna not do that. This one, I will admit, this was a project. This one took some time, but I’ve always had this vision in my head of like what the ultimate version of this would be. Like, you know, voting on a Google form, when you see them side by side, like,

You get the idea, but it’s not the same as when you see that big bracket visualization. And so, so I thought to myself, like, how could I put something together? And, you know, thanks to the numerous articles that I was assigned to write about technology and, the devices that will be taken over. I learned how to, I learned how to write a pretty strong prompt.

Yeah, it took more than one attempt. It took a lot of revisions and stuff like that But I I used Gemini to code for me to create basically like a web app that Visualizes the brackets and I got it so that You know the two pairings are are right on top of each other or whatever and there’s the picture embedded and along with that There’s the embedded

Podcast episode so you can listen and learn about whatever artists you might be on the other you’re with so it’s like it’s got that educational value right in there and all you have to do is click on which one you like better in each pairing and then hit submit and it will tally up the votes and then like the the favorite part that I had like in previous years I would have people asking about the results and and like some of them were close matches last year I had some where it came down to a single vote

But I was after like the fifth or sixth iteration, I realized like, I can set this up so that it will just automatically display the percentage totals that each artist got in the previous round. like the brackets, like the current bracket will be a little bit larger than the other ones. And I’ve got it color coded because, you know, I’m an elementary guy, so everything’s got to be rainbows. it starts and like.

You know, round one is in the lavender and then it goes to the blue and you know, it’s like a heat map of the tournament. But it’s, you know, it’s like the version I’ve always wanted to do of this. Like if I had been smarter and more organized from the start. So I’m like, very excited.

Tim:

You you got to teach to you also have a full time job. you know, don’t need to spend all your time doing this. But I love the idea of kids being able to just just vote right away, like vote right on the bracket there. And, you know, very cool.

obviously from a building an app perspective, but just kind of thinking about that from a learning standpoint, like what are the benefits that you see to that immediacy, being able to make those decisions right away, get feedback right away, like how does that affect engagement from students and retention with what you’re wanting them to learn?

Kyle:

Well, I mean, like I said, I’m elementary. So for me, it’s all about immediacy, you know, because I want kids, I don’t want kids to have to go through a second, third or fourth step to be able to explore their curiosity, you know, because for a lot of kids, like that’s, that’s not a hurdle. That’s a wall. They’re just not going to get over that. And I want to make sure that like anything I can do to get the information out to them and accessible I’m doing. And so for me it was like really, really important. My biggest goal was always to have the information out there in a way that they could listen and learn right away. Like that was really the goal when I started the podcast was creating a media library. I didn’t think it would get as big as it did. I just wanted to make something that would be like, nice for my classroom and students who needed to, couldn’t read and relax, could just listen and relax for a few minutes in like the calming corner or whatever we’re calling it these days. And so like I did early versions where I created a slide deck that had the embedded audio file and the two pictures side by side and it worked nicely. It was fine, but like I always wanted to have something where it’s just all in.

Tim:

Yeah, no, I think that works. I think that’s really cool. The other thing I was thinking about as you’re going through this tournament, I was I was wondering about kids who get really invested in an artist or really invested in like their favorite artwork, you know, and that’s awesome. Of course it is. But like what happens if one that they’re so invested in loses, like doesn’t make it to the next round? Have you ever had issues with kids staying engaged after their favorite artist, their favorite artwork gets eliminated from the tournament?

Kyle:

No, there have been times where they’re so shocked, they vote against whatever knocked out their favorite. There have been years where, I put Matt Groening in there once, the guy who did The Simpsons, and Homer Simpson and Matt Groening made it much farther in the tournaments than I think a lot of educators are comfortable with. But when it was finally knocked out, students were really upset. And it actually sparked really great debates, though, because then I had a handful of students who were just like, oh, come on, the joke is over. We all know. And the debates are fantastic.

Kids will spontaneously start talking about why this one deserved to win. And it’s really great, even if they’re upset, like it still fuels something in them for them to be able to articulate that case of why it is such a grave injustice that, you know, Homer isn’t the arts madness champion.

Tim:

Yeah, I love that. And like you said, that investment is there then. I love hearing kids talk about that, especially if they’re bringing it up organically. I feel like you’re really accomplishing what you set out to do at that point, right?

Kyle:

Yeah, because you know, and i’ve been on here talking in different ways that I try to spark those debates, but there’s there’s no substitution for the Student generated debates when they when they start taking a bond instead of like me pitting them against each other You know like it it’s really wonderful. and and they get a lot deeper in their conversations and bring out much more interesting thoughts and connections and insights, then you can usually draw out of them through the sort of stilted conversations that we have.

Tim:

Right, right. Now I love hearing that though. I love that that’s happening and I think that’s really, really cool. Now for the tournament this year for Arts Madness 2026, I’d love to hear sort of what you’re excited about, but can you also give us a rundown of the artists and the artworks who have won over the past few years or at least what you remember and maybe who you think might win this year? Because I’m just curious, like.

As this gets bigger each year, like do things change? Do you expect anything different or any kinds of surprises? I’ll Homer Simpson or what do you think might be coming this year?

Kyle:

Okay, so in the past, Kusama has won more than once and so has Vincent van Gogh. Hokusai is a perennial favorite. I mean, it’s the big names, the heavy hitters that you would expect, but if I recall correctly, I took Kusama and van Gogh out of this year’s tournament. Just because I wanted to see some different stuff in there. Yeah, absolutely.

I try to also get a lot of stuff from the AP art history list. You know I try to cover some of the AP lists. It’s a lot. It’s like 250 works that these kids need to know about. I feel like the AP students have it harder than the freshman college students. But I put a good number of those in there.

Tim:

They might, to be honest.

Kyle:

What I really love is like, okay, so in round one, I have Maya Lin up against Robert Rauschenberg, which like nothing really there, but then I put Willem de Kooning up against Elaine de Kooning. And if Willem and Rauschenberg win, I’m going to have erased de Kooning up against Willem de Kooning himself in round two. Like that would be, that would be perfect to see play.

Tim:

Yeah, I like that idea. I don’t know. I mean, like Maya Lin is one of my all time favorite artists. I’d be heartbroken if she loses in the first round, but also like I understand. And I would love that second round matchup. That would be great.

Kyle:

Yeah, and you know, the other thing is I I always say like well nothing there but then I start to think about it It’s like well actually my linn and the vietnam veterans memorial is this so quiet peaceful contemplative thing and up against a race to kunin, which is all about like well What’s less than nothing? It’s where something used to be it’s that absence and like and and so actually it is kind of fitting and and

This is one of those things where it’s like when you’ve got 64, you end up with these happy accidents where it comes out a little bit more brilliant and insightful than I planned. So I’m just going to pretend, yeah, I meant to do it. You know? Perfect. I saw that the whole time. I’ll take the credit for it.Yeah, I’ve got Pollock and Krasner in there. I haven’t had them up against each other in years, but I thought it would be nice. I also put the battle of some op artists, Riley versus Vasarely. I wanted to do a little bit, and I had to put in one of my absolute favorite contemporary artists, Herb Williams.

who makes the sculptures out of crayons. I love his work and I will never tire of throwing him in there every chance I get. Every time I’m like, I didn’t have time to make something, I gotta put a rerun in. I’m like, is it too soon to put Herb Williams in again? Because I know about his work.

Tim:

Yeah, you’ve told me about him before.

I love it, but I’m just thinking like it’s I can see where everybody gets invested because just listening to you list off the matchups. I have some really strong feelings. I have some strong opinions about what needs to win, so it’s very clear to me how everybody can get invested with this, but to kind of wrap things up, we’ll link to everything in the show notes. So if anybody is looking for this stuff, we’ll have links in the show notes. But while we’re here.

Can you tell everybody where they can find your podcast, find your website, find the Arts Madness Tournament?

Kyle:

Yeah, so the podcast Who Arted? weekly art history for all ages is available wherever you get your podcasts Apple Spotify all of that stuff. Um, I feel like i’m doing a bad job of the shameless plugs because I should also mention um part of the reason that i’m worn down on this is i’ve also been doing fun facts daily, which is a short form podcast that um I i’ve been

really loving because it gives me the flexibility to talk about a favorite artist or do, you know, fun facts about paint or, like the circulatory system or the human heart and kindness. Whatever is of interest and everything is so much more interesting once you start to like peel back the layers and learn about it. So, fun facts daily is also on all the podcasts, app podcast apps. you know, is of in what the arts madness stuff you can find at whoartedpodcast.com and I’m gonna have links for all of that stuff coming out pretty soon. And for those who the web app might be blocked by districts or whatever, I will also put, as I’ve done, the traditional Google form that you can download and copy and make your own version of to run your own tournament in your classroom as you see fit. So I’ve always tried to put out templates for people who want to copy and modify and make their own versions.

Tim:

That’s perfect. All right. Well Kyle Thank you for all of the work that you put into this and thanks for coming on the podcast to share it out and Hopefully we’ll make this the biggest and best tournament that we’ve had so far.

Kyle:

Thank you so much, really appreciate the opportunity.

Tim:

All right, thank you again to Kyle. And I hope our conversation today can give you an idea and hopefully you can hear why arts madness has become, you know, such an important tool and such a fun tool in his classroom and in so many classrooms throughout the country. And I also, before we wrap things up, want to tell you a little bit about the art of ed’s flex curriculum.

since we’re talking about great tools for engagement, for student learning, I, I love flex. Like just imagine starting each class, like knowing that you have a really thoughtful and also standards aligned lesson that’s ready to go. Like that is what flex curriculum provides. You have access to videos, to lessons, to resources, assessments, and more and more. And all of that is designed to.

help you feel confident, help you feel prepared as your students are coming in. All of the resources are created for art educators, by art educators, because we know the realities of teaching. whether you are brand new to the classroom or have been teaching a while, Flex will ensure that your students have access to meaningful and inspiring art instruction every day.

And you can find flex curriculum at the art of education dot edu slash flex. Hey, that being said, all of these ideas, all of these things are really about engaging students and doing things that are fun for our students. And what I love about Kyle’s ideas are not just about the competition and the bracket. It’s about the ownership. You know, when, when students are shocked that

Lee Krasner beats out Jackson Pollock or they’re mad that Homer Simpson gets eliminated. Like that is investment. They are invested in this stuff. You know, that’s when art history becomes personal and it’s like I said, really engaging for them. Like that’s when the real learning happens. When those debates are, are student generated rather than just teacher led and you can give them that ownership. Then I think that’s great. Okay. And if you want to bring, arts madness into your classroom this year,

We’ll link to everything in the show notes and Kyle’s Who Arted? podcast, as well as Fun Facts Daily. Just if you’re looking for, for more content that sparks curiosity across all kinds of different subjects and, and a huge thank you to Kyle for putting this all together. The amount of time and care that goes into this is appreciated and you know, it makes a huge impact for a lot of us. So.

Thank you again, Kyle, for putting this all together. Thank you again for coming on and thank you everyone for listening.

Art Ed Radio is produced by The Art of Education with Audio Engineering from Michael Crocker. Thank you for listening to this episode. We hope you enjoyed it. Again, if you want to dive deeper into any of this, check out the show notes or check out theartofeducation.edu. And you can also check out Flex for all of those resources. Please be sure to subscribe so we can join you again. And if you love the show,

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