Jennifer Furr

March 8, 2014
Reading Review 1 A Democratic Art Education
Summary of Main Ideas
The aesthetics and ethics of a democratic life would be one of the most important main
ideas from the Gude (2009) article. Gude thought that through making and experiencing art,
people generate, apprehend, and hold multiple ways of knowing and being in the world (Gude,
2009, p.29). She believed that individuals and communities could make things happen, and
empower themselves, through the arts. Stuhr gave us further information in her article, A Tale of
Why Social and Cultural Content is Often Excluded from Art Education: and Why It Should Not
Be, when she said that art education should connect to other things that are happening in
students lives, and should not just be a product, but an ongoing process. It is important to
understand culture and cultural diversity because culture provides beliefs, values, and the
patterns that give meaning and structure to life (Stuhr, 2003, p.303). And finally, Blandy also
spoke of the importance of culture within art education. Art education is a systemic and
extensive network within which children, youth, and adults make and learn about material
culture (Blandy, 2011, p.243). The common thread, or theme, across these readings would
appear to be the importance of learning culture through art education. These authors spoke of
community banding together to create projects to enrich their culture, not just about individuals
or children learning, and I thought that was pretty fantastic. They spoke of how culture gives
meaning to life, and how to keep producing this meaningful culture for generations to come.
Terms/Key Concepts

In the Gude article, she spoke of the self-aware, or self-actualized individual. Being selfaware means you are conscientious of things you do and say, and of the consequences your
words and actions may bring about. Self-actualization is defined as the realization or fulfillment
of one's talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone.
Gude thought a child would start to become self-aware by playing with materials. She also
thought it was important for these experiences to start early and recur frequently in order for the
child to become self-aware, which would eventually lead to self-actualization. Gude believed the
student makes themselves through their art work.
Critical investigation is a key term mentioned in the Stuhr article that I felt was
important. Critical investigation would be defined as an examination based on careful analysis
and evaluation. Stuhr thought it was important for students to be able to investigate critically in
order to express themselves more thoroughly and in new ways. I consider art education to be a
caring social space where critical investigation of and through relevant cultural production can
be facilitated by teachers to help students to inquire into the complexities and possibilities for
understanding and expressing life and death in new ways (Stuhr, 2003, p.303). All of this
investigating would lead to understanding culture, which Stuhr thought gave meaning to life.
Sustainability is a key term mentioned in the Blandy article which was important.
Sustainability is the ability to be sustained, which in this case was talking about our natural
environment. Sustainability of the environment is important to make sure that we have natural
resources around for ourselves and for future generations, as well. Blandy believed that the
practice of sustainability would help our communities grow stronger, and help place art
educators in leadership positions in this mission because of their history of knowledge and
involvement with environmental concerns. We can bring to students attention a plethora of

images, objects, and actions that are being created to respond to environmental concerns
(Blandy, 2011, p.248).
Critical Response/Application/Personal Reflection
How do these authors ideas and recommendations inform my own views about art
education? Well, as Gude said, students become self-aware by playing and experimenting with
art materials. I can facilitate that playtime and experimentation easily in my art room. Selfactualization would occur when the students make themselves through their art work. I really
like the idea of students making themselves through the art they make and discovering who they
are. This of course, would go along with what Stuhr said about critical investigation. Students
would have to be given proper time to investigate with materials and experiment with them, in
order to increase their self-awareness and become self-actualized. After reading this, I wanted to
implement some type of choice-based station rotation for students to use after their main
assignment is complete. I already have the materials set up in my room, but I would just need to
add signs and go through an explanation process like I did in the regular ed classroom before
students would start a round of reading/writing stations. Finally, sustainability is definitely an
important concept to teach the students. Students need to be environmentally aware now more
than ever, with all the concerns and issues in the world today.
What is a specific post-modern critical theory-oriented lesson I could teach in my art
class? Well, on the discussion board I talked about a lesson I could do where the children could
weave baskets or make clay bowls, which we could then donate to an orphanage or school for the
blind, or something of that nature. In order to make it a lesson about sustainability, we could use
recycled items, such as strawberry crates or magazine strips to weave the baskets with. Or if we
chose to use clay, we could have a lesson on how clay comes from the earth and how to

appreciate our natural resources, and our environment as well. Challenges I might face would
include shipping the items to the recipients of the project. There are not really any orphanages or
Schools for the Blind near our area. Ronald McDonald House would be the closest thing nearby,
and it is still an hour away. If we wound up making clay bowls, it would take a lot of preparation
to wrap the items carefully to ship, and some things might still wound up getting broken. I chose
my classroom as the setting for this project for a couple of reasons. One would be that my
classroom is nice and bright and pretty, and the other would be that Florida weather is so
unpredictable, it would be difficult to do this lesson outdoors with the humidity and constant
rain, or even heat in the Spring. The best way to overcome these obstacles would be to just have
the lesson inside my classroom. I do think it would be a worthwhile project, though.
References
Blandy, D. (2011). Sustainability, participatory culture, and the performance of democracy:
Ascendant sites of theory and practice in art education. Studies in Art Education, 52(3),
243-255.
Gude, O. (2009). Art education for democratic life [NAEA Lowenfeld Lecture]. Retrieved from
http://www.arteducators.org/research/2009_LowenfeldLecture_OliviaGude.pdf
Stuhr, P. L. (2003). A tale of why social and cultural content is often excluded from art education
and why it should not be. Studies in Art Education, 44(4), 301-314.