Researching how Arts Integration is practiced in a primary school, this article explores how elementary teachers understand, implement, and experience Arts Integration. Weaving together personal experiences, teacher interviews, focus group sessions, classroom observations, and written texts, I investigate how the arts are often devalued in Arts Integration. Not only are the arts used for decorative purposes, but the arts component in Arts Integration is greatly diluted as well. Addressing what can be done to attend to the problem of devaluing the arts in the classroom, this essay holds implications for teacher education, Arts Integration and curriculum development.

In this article, I present my lived experiences as an elementary visual arts teacher working in an arts-infused school. Investigating arts infusion as a form of arts integration, I introduce arts infusion and what it looks like in practice. Weaving together personal experiences, stories, reflections, lesson examples, and a literature review, I am inspired by narrative inquiry as a way of knowing and making meaning of past experiences and how reflective thinking can provide insight into the complexities of teaching and classroom practice. Reflecting on themes such as scheduling, time and space, participation, content knowledge, relationships and engagement, and support and funding, I highlight successes and challenges I encountered while working with arts infusion. Recognizing that many schools, particularly at the elementary level, are implementing arts integration, it is important to become aware of the lived experiences of those working in such programs and the possibilities their experiences, such as my own, have for growth and change. It is my hope more schools will acknowledge the potential for the arts and arts infusion in education.