Systems of Control

     As I read about arts education during the period of time between Ancient Greece and the Renaissance, I began to recognize themes of activity that resemble contemporary issues in arts education. Primarily, how systems of control have dictated over time how available art education is to people. Aristotle observed “To make art is to know the dynamics of nature and the psychology of human affairs” (15). I believe the intent of that statement was to describe the attitude required to create convincing representations in art, but the statement also identifies art as a discipline encouraging those who practice it to study science and the behavior of others. Over the period covered during these chapters, art education evolved from an endeavor of self and environmental awareness practiced within the community to formal academies teaching students how to accurately copy the work of prior celebrated masters. The will of those in power will always challenge what information society is allowed formal access to. If I’m a representative of the Church, I will want to have a say in just how much science my patrons believe. If I’m a government official, particularly one fearful of loosing my power, I may not want subjects who question my behavior. It’s that darn critical thinking side effect art has that I believe will always doom it’s security in public education programs.

Z590: A History of Art Education Introduction

  

  Image credit: Philosophy: A Discovery in Comics (2012) by Margreet de Heer 

          In beginning my exploration of the text A History of Art Education: Intellectual and Social Currents in Teaching the Visual Arts (1990) by Arthur D. Efland, I must say I am happy to be gaining a perspective of history that focuses on the arts in education. I minored in history during undergraduate school, but of course little reference is made in general history texts to the significance of art or art education over time.  On the second page of the first chapter, the author has already observed “instruction was affected by class, gender, and the general social status of the visual arts as a subject for study” (2).  I found the variety of individuals believed to be suitable artists and how their specific culture dictated that belief amusing. For some societies it was only the wealthy (and typically male) students who were allowed access to arts education, while others deemed art a slave or workingman’s trade, something only patronized by the wealthy.  Such a variance in reverence for art education must surely be the foundation of art’s continued vulnerability in education today.

I agree with the author’s observance “the arts reflect the society in which they arise, but so does the art education system that teaches the arts. Whether the system narrows access to the arts or makes them broadly available tells us something of the character of the society” (4). I wrote “Hello Kokomo” in the margin of my text next to this passage. Access to the arts and arts education is growing in my community, but mainly on the backs of loyal volunteers like myself. Our public art also often reflects our manufacturing town heritage. Kokomoans should have an appreciation of the factories and the incomes they have provided over the decades to generations of good hard working folk, but I sometimes step back and think shouldn’t we consider something new for our public art to say? I see it as Kokomo’s cultural policy in action. The author defines cultural policy as “the ways the arts are used to promote the values of a society” (5). I think when Kokomo creates this art honoring our manufacturing past, it also perpetuates the social control these manufacturers have established in our town during their decades of residency here. 

            I found the chapter Western origins of art education very helpful to me on a personal level. Much of the general history was familiar to me. The role and status of art in relation to the periods of time I was less familiar with and that knowledge caused me to have a serious “ah-ha” moment. My realization that the advocacy battle for the importance of the arts has been going on since before Christ was born has strangely lessened my urgency to convert the world to a bunch of arts advocates. I think I should have more patience now when communicating with those who don’t hold the same high opinion of art as I do.

            I look forward to the upcoming readings. We are delving into topics I enjoy very much: art, philosophy, history, culture, religion, and science to name the main areas.  I am a terribly slow reader and a very busy bank teller and community volunteer during the summer so I am relieved by the more open format of this independent study version of the course. Thank you again, Dr. Manifold for allowing me this summer option!

Visual Review of Philosophy: The Athenian Philosophers: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle by Leigh T. Denault. Heather Fouts (2014)

Final Presentation Video

Last Day of Saturday Art School

It's the end of the semester and we have assembled our student's work into a fabulous exhibit. I'm hoping the weather conditions subside enough for us to actually have it!

This class has truely been a learning experience on many levels, professional and personal. I am once again working on a final video project and really hoping it turns out better than my last video endeavor. I will post it on here when it is finished. 

Saturday Art School: Clay Activities and Golomb

           In chapter three of Claire Golomb’s Child Art in Context: A Cultural and Comparative Perspective (2002) early observance is made that research of children’s art and art practice focus mainly on the two-dimensional. The author observes, and I agree, that clay is a “technically difficult and somewhat messy medium to work with” (p. 51-52). Ceramic art practice is also expensive to support. The space needed to store three-dimensional art is valuable, the equipment (kilns and wheels) is costly, and the time spent by those tending to the artwork as it processes through the drying and firing stages doesn’t often come free. These are all valid, albeit unfortunate, excuses to discourage the abundant presence of ceramic art in schools.

In our 5^th and 6^th grade class, the students possessed prior knowledge of working with clay. They all knew what a pinch pot was and had all seen a kiln. I feel the experiences noted by Golomb regarding the evolution and development of a child’s understanding of three-dimensional form through clay art described experiences our students had already had. In class they did not require much instruction regarding how to form shapes that somewhat represented the features they were striving to achieve, nor did they struggle to understand how to affix these pieces together. Golomb states that the young artist struggles with problems also faced by older students. Specifically, “how to create a satisfying representation in a medium that puts a premium on balance, uprightness, and the modeling of multiple sides, all of which require great skill and practice” (p. 76). We only had two students create standing figures in the week 4 activity so obviously there was some consideration given to what ability they could put forth to make their creature be balanced and stand upright. Most solved that problem by creating a creature that was sitting or lying down, 

It seems to me what our students had been denied in their prior experiences was time to develop their skills with practice time. I assume (due to the circumstances mentioned before and the student’s performance in class executing the processes they claimed to know) what experience they had been allowed in school was limited at best. Perhaps they made a pinch pot and were shown a kiln and that was it! It is for that reason I am glad we had the mishap regarding the unfired work. Prior to that I had a lesson planned to embellish and paint the clay creatures from week 4. Since these were still green and very fragile, we passed on that lesson and chose to do relief sculptures using clay tiles and underglaze for week 5. I think this lesson was a hit. Not only did the students gain more experience actually working with the clay medium, but they also learned something new. No one had prior knowledge of the relief process or the properties of underglazes. 

Saturday Art School: Clay Creatures

This week the 5^th and 6^th grade group created clay imaginary creatures. The lesson required them to develop a concept for their creature via preliminary sketch in their sketchbooks, view and participate in PowerPoint discussion and demonstration, create a pinch pot, and using tools provided and the score and slip method, attach features to transform the pinch pot into a creature.

When creating the lesson plan, I assumed many of the students may have already completed a similar lesson in school. Keeping that in mind, I chose to include elements that connected the activity to the real world. We did this by discussing Tim Burton’s use of model making to create characters used in his stories and film and introducing ceramist Eva Funderburgh who creates and sells ceramic creatures. The images chosen to speak of these individuals included scenes of each artist, sitting in their studio creating a clay creature. Both scenes had preliminary sketches of the creatures being made hanging in the background. I used that to point out the relevance of the sketchbook activities they participate in each morning when they arrive. Several students recognized Tim Burton and were able to identify and talk to each other about the characters he had created. Eva, not so much but we introduced them to someone new.

 

              Another element I hoped to add more of this week was allowing the students to participate in instruction. I had a student join me at the front of the class when demonstrating how to make a pinch pot. We both made pots to review the process. It was a short bit of the demonstration, but something about it really sparked my interest in involving that sort of interactivity a lot more in my instruction methods. In our reading this week, Thompson discussed the writings of Russian psychologist L.S. Vygotsky which support ideas that children develop and learn best via interplay of personal initiatives combined with intersubjective experiences (Thompson 132). I think this observation of childhood learning definitely applies to our class’ age group. They are very socially conscious little kids. Not all of them pose an extrovert personality, but they all seem to be very influenced by what others in their class are doing, perhaps more so than what Jinyi, Cassidy, or I are doing. So why not let them help teach? Last year in my Z531 methods class a different pair of students would present discussion on the readings each week. We taught each other to the best of our ability and the instructor filled in any gaps by generating key discussions not touched on by the student presentations. After reading the Vygotsky bit in Thompson’s article, I realize now how much that process in Z531 fostered my understanding of the material and of teaching. “What the child can do in cooperation today, he can do alone tomorrow” is a quote from Vygotsky shared by the author that basically defines the process (Thompson 132). A student (of any age, in my opinion) can master their own understanding of the material by sharing it and instructing others.  This has really made a connection with me.

Regarding our reading by Eubanks, we have at least two children in our class who speak a language other than English. I have not observed that any student in our class is having difficulty understanding the teachers. I have observed them using the other language when discussing the day’s activity or their completed product with their parent. If a language barrier did create a problem in my classroom, I really like the suggestions Eubanks makes to learn some simple phrases and learn basics about their culture (Eubanks 42-43). I believe having common knowledge always helps the relationship between teacher and student.

Saturday Art School: Color and Paint

Yesterday in class our group allowed the students to explore with paint. We started them off with a sketchbook prompt leading them to think about and draw a place of their choice. While the students arrived and were sketching we had music playing.  We experienced a small “hiccup” with that as a song triggered a sad memory for one little girl and made her cry. When we changed the song she was ok. At the beginning of the lesson, Cassidy used her Power Point to briefly explain that the swatches they would create today would be cut up in next class and used to create an imaginary landscape. The class split up then to the discovery stations at the back of the room. We had three stations set up with tempera paints, materials and tools to manipulate swatches of color the students painted. When asked, many of them already recognized basic color mixing formulas but not very many had ever had the opportunity to experiment with paint on the scale that we allowed them during our class. The kids loved the freedom we allowed them to have. One child even exclaimed her mother NEVER let he paint “like this!”

 

Altered with plastic wrap.

Altered with salt.

Altered with alcohol.

 

In our text Children and Their Art, Hurwitz and Day describe three general styles of instruction: directive, Socratic/questioning, and discovery (p.284). The lesson Cassidy has planned for us during this segment of SAS I feel weighs in strongly on the discovery method. She set the stage for an open-ended lesson requiring the students to speculate and problem-solve…and they loved it.  Our group (5^th and 6^th grade) stayed on-task. They were intrigued by the variables we presented and maintained active participation until class was over.  Each student completed 4 or more 9x12 fully painted pages.

There were several instances in class that recalled reading from our text by Smith. The students were very socially conscious, they did well working in a group where they could share experiences. I tried to stay conscious of my responses to the student’s work, responding in ways that affirmed they had done it correctly and why it worked. That seemed to really generate positive reactions and encouraged them to experiment more.

The Smith text also describes understanding three dimensional spaces as a challenge for this age group. I think the second part of Cassidy’s lesson, assembling an imaginary landscape, will be a good opportunity to teach them about how to manage depth and space in a composition.  One thing we did not do (that I recall) is share an example of the finished product. I think the students understood we will be cutting up their “masterpieces” from yesterday’s class, but I’m not sure they visualized the end product. I know Cassidy had a completed one in her book so we will have one to share next class, but maybe it would be wise to share a completed “end product” during first class in the future.