LTC 8740 Curriculum in Art Ed

Monday - June 3, 2013

Class: Overview of Course

9:00am - 11:45am · Townsend Hall, 109 · Lecture

Assignment -
Read:
Eisner Chapters 1 & 2
Chapter 1 Freedman
Imagination First - Intro and check out each spark

Choose one of the 21 Imagination sparks and demonstrate/describe how you would use it in an art class to promote imaginative thinking that leads to creative production, responding or presenting artwork.

Let me begin by reminding any dear readers that I am utter crap at summarizing. So if I ramble or detour, please forgive me. I will do my best to begin by summarizing what has been read and then follow up with my thoughts on what was read. These may be deep, they may be trying to figure things out, they may be an urgent response to the dead line or bed time soon approaching. And with that...I begin with day one, and "The Role of Arts in Transforming Consciousness" - chapter one of the Eisner book, The Arts and the Creation of Mind.

We begin with biological features, discussing the features of our senses and our nervous system (reminding me of our Studio Thinking discussions this afternoon) and the part they play in developing our consciousness. This idea of senses being what creates in us the ability to comprehend and gives us the ability to learn, setting us apart from the likes of that such as the chimpanzee. With the aid of the tools of culture (language, the arts, science, values, etc.) in tandem with the senses we are able to learn how to "create ourselves." [and to argue the point of these things in schools - how can we become a great society, a great civilization, if we do not see how to create ourselves? If we do not know how to form an identity? If we survive on impulse and action alone without thought to the why or the how or the impact we have? How do we rise above and do great things, be great, without self-realization? Isn't that connected to the great question of 'what is life?' How can we experience life without being a part of a culture, without being part of something bigger than ourselves? And how do we realize that without participating in the arts and recognizing that in ourselves? - - but perhaps I digress from the reading assignment.]

I liked his connections of schools to the different connections of 'culture'  - that the anthropological is a shared way of life, and that the biological is a medium for growing things - and that schools are indeed both. And that our classrooms are in turn, microcosmos of that, a shared way of life where things grow. So many teachers get into teaching and find the impact they have so rewarding, the leaving of a legacy, the sowing of seeds for tomorrow.

"A culture populated by a people whose imagination is impoverished has a static future. In such a culture there will be little change because there will be little sense of possibility." Is that why standardized testing isn't working? I couldn't help but make a note in my book asking "and why are the art specialists (in elem) then being pushed to the sidelines, relegated to such a small time slot only once or twice a week?" Why aren't we taking advantage of these knowledgeable people and bringing them in to the classroom as true Specialists, coaching classroom teachers in arts integration and how to engage students in seeing?

"Appreciation, though active, can be mute. Something else is needed if the products of our imagination are to make a social contribution to our culture. That something else is representation." I would argue that we need to spend MORE time teaching students to look, to appreciate, and not just how to mimic the words of appreciation. (seems similar to me how so many say they respect teachers and what they do, but then their actions or attitudes speak quite a different message.) We need our students to look to see the world around them in order to reflect and respond to what they see in the act of doing (or representing). It can not stop at appreciation, but consideration and importance given to it to properly scaffold what children, young adults, and beginning viewers need in order to design, create, represent what is in their minds eye. It reminds me of the Cherokee legend of the two wolves:

“A wise tribal elder told a story to his grandson one evening by the fire.  ‘Inside me, there is a fight raging between two wolves.  One wolf is anger, bitterness, self-pity, jealousy, and sorrow.  The other wolf is love, faith, hope, peace, forgiveness, and joy.  Both wolves are strong, and they battle fiercely – not just in me, but in everyone, even you.’

The young boy thought for a moment and asked, ‘Grandfather, which wolf will win?’

The wise elder replied, ‘The one you feed.’”

We need to feed the mind's eye and give it nourishment in order for it to imagine. 

For Chapter Two - Visions and Versions of Art Education. Eisner goes on to break down seven aims or purposes of art education: 1) Discipline Based Art Education (which sounds so much deeper than the way I experienced and saw it taught as student and beginning teacher - when did the E & P get such a prominent position of place?); 2) Visual Culture; 3) Creative Problem Solving; 4) Preparation for teh World of Work; 5) Cognitive Development; 6) Promotion of Academic Performance; and 7) Arts Integration. Interesting how I see these not as being exclusive but that each one contains pieces of importance that should be seen and contained in any good art program. It is no wonder why that at one time or another they each held prominence of place in the education system.

The question then that Eisner goes on to ask on page 42, "What, at this point in time, should art education try to achieve?" is an important one that every art teacher should ask themselves as they set out to teach.  He goes on to outline 5 principles that we should consider:

1) Art should be given pride of place to what is distinctive about the arts and not try to mimic the skills that are beholden to other areas. We need to celebrate and revel in what makes the art powerful and worthwhile. What is distinctive about the arts is itself of value. In today's standards and high-stakes testing it is sometimes easy to lose sight of this. What the Visual Arts do is teach students to make visible aspects of the world around them. 

2) Art Ed programs should try to foster the growth of artistic intelligence. We should stop separating the arts from "intellectual" subjects and embrace the idea that art IS an intellectual subject, teach it that way, and bring others up to thinking it is such. How often do we see students as smart in our classes to only later find out that they don't always perform well grade wise? Aren't we providing students with an outlet where they feel successful and haven't we known this all along?! Sometimes I get frustrated because it seems like we are having to justify what is distinctive about the arts. Is it because too many people had art teachers who didn't help students make connections or build relationships with them? When is it that students start to get the message that art is not important or fun or worthwhile? And who do they hear it from? I had a teacher who I would hear her tell the boys she didn't like boys so do what you want. How detrimental to not just that one person's psyche but to the reputation of art! It makes me hurt still to this day just thinking of the effect she has had on so many students. BUT, I digress. back to....

3) Art Education programs should help students learn how to create satisfying visual images, how to see and respond to what we call the arts and other visual forms, and how to understand the role arts play in culture. And as teachers we need to be highlighting for them how art is integrated all around them and getting students to reflect on that, demonstrate their understanding of how art is everywhere, and not just flippantly say, "Anything is Art." Maybe it is, but how to distinguish and differentiate and pull out the nuance and subtleties? How do we discern? How can we get our students to be more metacognitive? 

4) Art Education should help students recognize what is persona;, distinctive, and even unique about themselves and their work. (please see similar points and ramblings above.)

5) Art Ed programs should make special efforts to enable students to secure aesthetic forms of experience in everyday life. Yes. Yes! "First I see the hills in the painting, then I see the painting in the hills." How true this is. In my mind, I see a caveman, out on a walk alone as the sun is setting on the hills, when he is overcome by an aesthetic experience - seeing the paint in the hills and being compelled to record it for others.

Freedman, Teaching Visual Culture Ch. 1 - The Professional Field: Theorizing Visual Culture in Education

First, I want to start off by saying that I go see Kerry Freedman speak whenever possible. I get giddy when I see her walking around at conferences, feeling like I've just seen Bono. She is one of those people in Art Ed I could be a groupie for. Although not as energetic a speaker as Gude with a more academic demeanor, she is just as profound and inspiring. I'm hoping the reading lives up to my expectations. 

As usual, Freedman was great at outlining the theory behind art ed and visual culture introducing us to the importance of teaching visual culture in art. She highlights that today's students may learn more from images than from texts. She mentions the changing nature of our world so that the visual arts overlap so much of our social lives that we need to include visual culture if for no other reason than to help give it context and make better sense of art. The second reason she gives is the changing nature of what we consider art objects to be. In our post-modern world, the concept of "Fine Art" is changing and becoming more broad to include a wider range of 'artifacts'. 

Imagination first - 

SPARKS! so many ideas!

1) Hoarding Bits - collecting ephemera to record a day's worth of consumption, or to record their life from the bits that aren't supposed to be permanent, the idea of impermanence (oh what an existential project that could turn into...). These bits could be turned into some great sketchbook art pieces.

2) Mix Your Metaphors - This one really stands out to me because I keep coming back to this idea being so fundamental to the beginning viewer / creator. I like the idea of investigating metaphors in artworks, as well as literal interpretations, comparing the artist's choice in making meaning (VTS!). Then I would have a student create a self-portrait using metaphor to represent themselves. For guided practice, I would use Andy Warhol's shoe drawings. He used to create portraits of his friends as shoes (all drawn on the back of business cards). What kind of shoe would you be? How would the qualities of shoes be like your own personal characteristics?

3) Play Telephone - Eavesdropping. Record overheard pieces of conversations to use as prompts for sketchbook artwork inspiration.

4) Help out a Boobonian - How would you record a life, a history, through artwork or designed objects? Have students present their life in objects that they define as art. How would a time line of their  life look through objects? OR alternately, how would we record a period of history and show it through the art objects that have been made? OR how about giving language prompts and having students explore visual communication by translating it into a picture, icon, image of some sort?