Self Portraitby Sequoia CunninghamSew Hoy &Sons Buildingby Mike Gray

Action Research

By Mary Brady

BalmacewenArt Gallery Online

Action Research Title:

Balmacewen Art Gallery Online

Author: Mary BradyDate: 2008

Outline

The principal aim of this research is to develop Art Gallery for Balmacewen Schoolonline. I hope that this Art Gallery is viewed and adds value to the experience of making art for the Balmacewen students.It may also:

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provide incentives and reward students

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raise the profile of students artwork

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have the students’ work reach a wider audience

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profile the schoolThe potential benefits for individual pupils are:

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rewarded for their success

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their artwork has a wider audience

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can receive feed back from others

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can feel proud of having their work on an online galleryThe potential benefit for me as a teacher:

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my students work can reach a wider audience

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I may find other art teachers doing the same and have more contact/supportwith other art teachers

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the website can potentially profile me as an art teacher The potential benefit for the school:

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is that the community may come to see Balmacewen as a school that values artand has a strong art programmeQuestions I am interested in researching:

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Is having your work posted in the Online Gallery something you would wantto have happen?

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Do they show their work to anyone? If so who?

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How do students like to be rewarded?

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Do students find value in having the top 5 students rewarded?

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What impact does it have on students if they are not in the top 5 selected?

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Would student like feedback on their artwork from viewers who see their work?

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Do students want to give others feedback about their art?

Introduction

In 2007 I taught my first year as a Specialist Art Teacher at Balmacewen IntermediateSchool in Dunedin, New Zealand. Balmacewen has about 380 students in Year 7 and8. There are 14 classrooms and three Specialist teachers.Students from two classrooms are split three ways into Art, Soft and Hard Materialsclasses. Generally I have between 17 – 20 students per art class. Each student has onaverage 26 art sessions per year, which is split into Semester 1 and 2. These studentscome from a wide range of schools and arrive with varying skills and abilities.They range in age from 11-13.I have been teaching for 15 years: 9 years as a classroom teacher, 5 years teaching artto students from Years 1-8 and job sharing and 1 year as an art specialist teacher. In2006 I graduated from Otago Polytechnic with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.This research is of value to me as a teacher and an artist as I am interested to see if students do view their and others work on the online art gallery and how they feelabout this.

Background to the project

Currently once a group of students (17-20) have all completed a piece of work wedemocratically decide on the top five pieces of work. This is done by studentsnominating up to ten students. Students are required to be specific about why theyvalue someone’s work and use art terms to describe what they value. Next thestudents are asked to select the two students’ work they most value. The students areencouraged to base their choices on what they value as opposed to who is their friendor popular. They may not cast two votes for the same person and they may vote for themselves. Students are then asked to close their eyes and a blind vote is carried out.They top 5 are selected. Say if only the top three are clear winners then these getremoved and then we revote. However this time students are only able to cast onevote. This is continued until we have selected our top five pieces of work.These students receive a certificate and have their work display in the foyer or thelibrary. They also have their work loaded in our Balmacewen Art Gallery Online.Our school website has a link to Photobucket’s website.I have told the students that their work is available for viewing from our schoolwebsite but haven’t shown them it and haven’t asked them if they have viewed it or shown anyone their work.