-pages from a graduate student-
Katharine Norman
Projects from Grad School
As a student working to become an educator, this page is dedicated to the steps along the way...
ARE 6641: Contemporary Issues in Art Education
Lesson 1:
According to the authors you read, what are the aims of contemporary art education? What are the benefits and the challenges of applying the approaches recommended by these authors? Applying some of the ideas contained in these essays, describe a contemporary art lesson you might teach in a specific art educational site of your own choosing. As art educator Doug Blandy observes, art education now takes place in many different kinds of educational sites. In your lesson example, talk about the educational setting in which you either currently teach or in which you envision yourself teaching in the future. Feel free to include active Web links and images in your posts and replies.
Katharine's response:
Of our readings for this lesson, Patricia L. Stuhr’s lecture A Tale of Why Social and Cultural Content is Often Excluded from Art Education- And Why It Should Not Be spoke the loudest to me. The ideas and points she raised made so much sense to me, and I could understand her frustration and the prompting of this lecture- I wanted to be like “I hear you Patricia, I’ll listen!”. Not being in an art educator position yet, and only having a background in studio art and art history, I’ve had a different take on most things thus far in Art Education. As Stuhr’s example with “Sabrina” went, I was shocked to hear that coming from someone with a similar background as mine because I feel the exact opposite way. Being an artist first has given me a perspective I feel enhances what I’m learning through AE. I think it keeps me from loosing sight of where we as art educators should be getting our students to, and that the educational “stuff” is the means to get there. The aims of contemporary art education should be to enrich our students life through the use of the arts. It should allow us to show students there are multiple ways of self expression, and by doing so they will gain better understanding of others around them. They should be able to connect to their peers, their community, and all of society in a more capable and diverse way through the teaching of contemporary art education. As Gude wrote, “the structure of a self is not formed just by what happened, what one experienced, but always also how one has understood and interpreted this experience- at the time of the initial experience and upon later reflections.” It’s our job to help them with their interpretations, and even if that isn’t through the arts for every student, they should at least gain the importance and meanings of expression and in turn, interpret it in their own way through the knowledge that we have provided them.
A lesson I would be interested in developing would have to do with creating a digital self portrait or voice. Not “digital” in the now a day traditional sense of a camera, but I think it’s important for most all age groups of this time to consider what they are saying about themselves through all the medias we use. Do your Facebook and Instagram pictures represent an accurate portrait of who you are? In a day and age where you can visually post your entire day to anyone you like, how do we accurately sum up who we are?
My purpose for being in Art Education...
Lesson 3: Views on Visual Culture
A Response to Visual Culture Art Education
Summary
Eisner discusses the pros and cons of changing the world of art education as we know it, which is primarily based on Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE). Moving to Visual Culture Art Education (VCAE) he feels would essentially remove the art from art education. There would be no creation, only discussion and critique. He also reflects on the politics it would ensue, and practically dominate, creating truly a social studies class, not an art class. The other combating issue with today’s art education that Eisner takes a look at is standardized testing, and the constraints it has placed on us as art educators. Should we manipulate our subject so that it looses it’s “spirit”, just to have an easier way of testing our students? Would VCAE give in to this framework? These are questions Eisner begs, but also sheds light on to remind us that it is not just about us, or even art, but we are not to forget about the students throughout our unease. In his summary, he reminds us that,
it would be a shame if in our pursuit of excellence in our schools we forget the primary reason we are there. That reason, I have suggested, has to do with what teachers can give students at a human and deeply personal level. Such contributions may never show up on the SATs, but we know that they are the most important contributions that we can make. (Eisner, 2001, p. 10)
Duncum defends that VCAE is a means to better connect with students. It’s about getting them to understand and explore the world that they live in. It is not just another celebration of fine art, or “merely an extension of existing practice.” (Duncum, 2002, p. 8) Tavin also reminds us that the study of visual culture is a way for us to better engage our students. He states that it is popular culture which, “help shape and regulate students’ understanding of themselves and the world-their social relatedness.” (Tavin, 2003, p. 197) However, he discusses visual culture not just in terms of art education, but he looks at how the topic ever came about. It isn’t an incredibly new phrase or understanding, but there became a need to name this idea for, “a present-day condition where images play a more central role in the construction of consciousness and the creation of knowledge than in the past.” (Tavin, 2003, p. 204) Visual culture isn’t an art education specific term, and he defines it in a few ways. His main concept is that visual culture is comprised of three descriptors: phenomenological, substantial and pedagogical. He goes on to explain how visual culture is simply a term to define how we live in a world inundated with images, the physicality that it entails, and how we are to contextualize it all.
Key Terms and Concepts
The most important term throughout these readings was visual culture. Though widely debatable on how it is to be used, it was fairly consistent that the term came about to help us define our response to living in a world that has become image driven. It is an attempt to “interpret how visual experience and the visualized subject are constructed within social systems, practices, and structures.” (Tavin, 2003, p. 209) Though originally associated with art history, the term took on yet another meaning when merged with art education: Visual Culture Art Education, or VCAE. Visual culture in this format becomes a way for students to study art with material that is in their everyday life. Students are to learn art education as it has been taught, but with an emphasis “on questions related to the nature and function of visual culture in society and it’s impact on their lives.” (Duncum, 2002, p. 7)
Response, Application and Reflection
This lesson left me asking one thing, why is there even the title “VCAE”? If, as Duncum states, it is not to “evolve into just one thing” (Duncum, 2002, p. 6), then why call it visual culture art education? Why aren’t advocates for this way of teaching simply saying, we’d like to integrate visual culture into our current art education curriculums? That’s where I believe VCAE should be, and where it would serve us best. Becoming it’s own entity is almost an oxymoron, we can not have art education based solely on visual culture. It would no longer be art education; even the predominate curriculum base for teaching art today, DBAE, is a blend of subjects, it is not based on one single topic alone. If visual culture wants to stand alone, it most certainly has the right and even the place in this day and age to be a subject within the arts. However, it should also exist as it’s own subject outside of the arts, as it is a heavily based social study. I believe we should look at it in the way that we have accepted art history into the arts: it is history, it exists outside of the arts as such, but when it’s concentrated and specifically studied in the context of art, we include it in the study of art and of course in art education.
As far as a project incorporating VCAE for the classroom, I would create a pop art lesson. Studying Warhol and Lichtenstein, we would investigate the images that they chose, why, and their commentary on mass production and consumption through their art. The lesson would focus on a particular visual item of the student’s choosing that they felt has been over saturated in the media. They would then take their image and create a pop art inspired piece of work. Students should reach a better understanding of how an image is portrayed by the end of the lesson. They should be able to identify the effects media has on an image, and what it does to an image to remove it from it’s original or media based context. As I believe Eisner discusses in his article, visual culture shouldn’t take over the practices in current art education. It should however, work with and influence how we look at teaching art. I think that the lesson I developed (view more details in our lesson discussion) is a meeting ground for both. Pop art is the perfect study for visual culture and traditional or DBAE.
References
Duncum, P. (2002). Clarifying visual culture art education. Art Education, 55(3), 6-11.
Eisner, E. (2001). Should we create new aims for art education? Art Education, 54(5), 6-10.
Tavin, K. (2004). Wrestling with angels, searching for ghosts: Toward a critical pedagogy of visual culture. Studies in Art Education, 44(3), 197-213.
As an artist, I know art is made to be shared. I bring an artist's eye and point of view to my work, and think that having that background and artistic vision will be a great asset as I grow in Art Education. I want to become a leader and inspire young artists through the many vistas of art as I was inspired by my mentors. Giving children not only the skill set for creating their art, but encouraging them to put it out in their community is my mission and part to keep the art world constantly evolving.
I would love nothing more than to have my own classroom one day. I strongly believe in the positive impact art can have on a community and that's very important to me. I found a freedom in art classes and galleries growing up, and I connected with creativity. It's important to have strong arts programs that foster young creative minds, so that the arts can continue with every generation. Achieving my graduate degree at UF will give me the knowledge and skills necessary to set my career path down the proper road to having that classroom of my own.
Art Education excites me, because it breeds teachers, professors and mentors for young artists, as I hope to become one of those leaders myself. I wouldn't be the artist or the person I am today without those mentors in my life. I'm ready to find a place in the art world that is my own, and allows me to give back to the community that shaped me. Education and learning instill intellectual and personal growth, both of which I seek and desire. I'm in this program to achieve my goals, while hopefully making a difference in the lives of others.