20 August 2012

VADEA EVADEA E-BULLETIN

Vol. 28

VISUAL ARTS & THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM

Theres disquiet in the NSW Visual Arts education community that what may be forsaken in the national curriculum is too precious to lose. Dr Karen Maras and Nick Phillipson from the Visual Arts and Design Educators Association of NSW tell IEU journalist Tara de Boehmler whats at stake. Nick, an IEU member teaching Visual Arts at St Patricks College Strathfield, says scaffolding content using a conceptual framework are among the keys to the NSW approach to quality visual arts curriculum and teaching. I teach only boys and they learn best when information is approached through highlighting framework concepts as points of reference, Nick says. The domain specific concepts being scaffolded amount to a framework that allows students to understand artworks in relationship to key agencies of the world, the audience and the artist, he says. When focusing on learning in art, I would be very concerned if we were to lose the idea of practice. The concept of practice supports teachers work in talking about how and why artists make art. This core content is only very loosely referenced in the draft curriculum. In terms of practice, we need students to understand how artworks fit into realms of an artists conceptual ideas, influences and material practice; how artists can be masters of particular mediums is connected to how they develop their intentions to represent ideas in artworks. EXPLORING THE ARTWORLD Understanding artists practice can be closely linked to knowledge of the art world, Nick says. The art world is a very diverse domain that has influenced whole movements throughout art history. Insufficient reference is made to a students critical and historical understanding of how artists respond to and are influenced by this domain. This includes an exploration of the history that comes with western art and eastern art concepts, the idea of the difference between craft, design and art, the multi-facets of the gallery system consisting of the artist, the curator, the galley director or the role of the audience member. The artist as practitioner has to tap into the art world as point of influence. Students need this grounding and knowledge of such instances of practice in the art world to inform their own ideas of how and why an artist creates their artwork. SEQUENTIAL LEARNING Karen says it is this practical, sequential learning approach that must take precedence over the aesthetic. People assume that students work with the elements and principles of design when they look at artworks. The belief is that a basic knowledge of art concerns aesthetic knowledge. Under these terms knowing about colour, line and shape is foundational knowledge. Those elements are pertinent to some forms of art but my research on students understandings of things like painting in art shows they actually dont work on aesthetic terms, they work with real ideas about artworks as products of artists practice. Article recently published in the Independent Education Unions journal IE, Issue 2 Vol. 4 http://news.ieu.asn.au/1679_2.html
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VADEA EVADEA E-BULLETIN

Vol. 28

VISUAL ARTS & THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM

From a really young age, students work with the properties of subject matter and they name things that they recognise in artworks very simply and literally. They dont orientate themselves using aesthetic theory. Aesthetic, cultural and semiotic theories are understandings they acquire through cultural engagement and learning with their teachers in art rooms across the country. Karen says sequential learning is vital as students acquire this understanding. The kind of knowledge students acquire in art is logical and sequential. Foundational knowledge concerns explanations of what artworks do, who they are made by, how they come into existence and the role of intention in this. As students get older they start to realise that artworks are the products of an artists ideas and intentions. They know that artists produce artworks with a sense of purpose that engages audiences quite diversely. By the time they are about 12 students can speculate on how artworks can mean different things for different people. They can explain that artists have intentions, representing different value systems, to make artworks that are informing us about all sorts of different discourses whether its history, tradition, community, beauty, irony or deeply felt perceptions of things. This kind of knowledge extends beyond how people feel in the artworld and how colour, line, shape and tone amounts to a well-formed composition.

BEYOND THE ROMANCE

Both Karen and Nick would like to see an end to the romanticised notion of arts education being chiefly about creative self-expression and freedom for the individual. You cant actually turn that into curriculum, Karen says. How do you assess someones aesthetic experience? Its not viable especially when historical and contemporary art forms taught in schools resist the very notion of the aesthetic. You might be looking at a fantastic new contemporary artwork, but if you are armed only with the elements and principles of design, then you will be wondering how to deal with it. Whereas, we can talk about foundational knowledge in terms of what was the artist trying to do?, who is the audience? and whats it about? simple questions that require much deeper knowledge in terms of the answers. This needs to be spelt out in the national curriculum, Nick says. It seems egalitarian to say this is just a guide and you can fill in the rest but in practice this is not how schools work. Any loose, overly flexible approach and anything that erodes the hours allowance in visual arts is problematic because many schools are run with very tight curriculum schedules, If we dont get it right this is going to have a flow-on effect for Australias cultural capital. Dr Karen Maras is Co-President of VADEA and Visual Arts Education Senior Lecturer at Australian Catholic University. VADEAs Nick Phillipson is an IEU member and Visual Arts Teacher from St Patricks College, Strathfield. Article recently published in the Independent Education Unions journal IE, Issue 2 Vol. 4 http://news.ieu.asn.au/1679_2.html
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34 DAYS LEFT for FEEDBACK

Both the NSW BoS Online Survey and the ACARA consultation for the ACARA DRAFT Australian Curriculum: The Arts will close 23rd September. Please take the time to complete each. VISIT THE VADEA WEBSITE TO READ VADEAs WORKING RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT http://vadea.org.au/wordpress/index.php/2012/08/vadea-draft-response-to-acarasproposed-arts-curriculum/ TO DOWNLOAD DRAFT AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM: THE ARTS Click here to view the Draft Australian Curriculum: The Arts Foundation to Year 10

NSW BoS ONLINE SURVEY

Consultation on the Draft Australian Curriculum: The Arts
The Board of Studies is consulting with teachers and the public through teacher focus group meetings in metropolitan and regional centres and an online survey. The focus of the Board's consultation will be on the draft Australian curriculum content. The Board will provide ACARA with formal NSW feedback about the quality and suitability of the curriculum.

ACARA CONSULTATION
To Leave Feedback*
ACARA is conducting consultation on the draft Australian Curriculum: The Arts Foundation to Year. ACARA welcomes and encourages your feedback on these draft curriculum materials.

http://consultation.australiancurriculum. edu.au
Closing date: 23 September 2012
*Please note to leave feedback you will need to register with ACARAs website, if you are not already visit

Closing date: 23 September 2012

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ australian-curriculum/k-12-arts.html

http://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Reg ister

NSW PREMIERS AWARD FOR VISUAL ARTS

VADEA wishes to congratulate Hannah Burns, Queenwood School for Girls and a VADEA Executive Officer, on her 2012 Premiers Award for Visual Arts. In describing her plans for the award Hannah states; I intend to reposition and provide current examples of the roles of the Conceptual Framework, that is the artist, artwork, audience and artworld thereby improving the access Teachers have to international contemporary art knowledge. I will do this by providing published and film resources. I am enthusiastic about demonstrating how powerfully and robustly the conceptual framework can hold and amplify the agencies active within such exhibition sites as the Biennales, in particular the Shanghai Biennale.

Centre, Hannah Burns receiving the award from NSW Minister for Education and Training Adrian Piccoli and NSW Premier Barry OFarrell.

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VADEA E-BULLETIN VADEA E-

Vol. 28

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