Refocusing Priorities in Art Education

On the sheet provided, respond to the following prompt:

Identify 3 skills or concepts you want

your students to leave your class with at
the end of the year.
 EXPECTATIONS
What do people expect from art education?

CONNECTIONS
How do expectations relate to student success beyond
high school?

SOLUTIONS
How can we ensure that our students’ experiences
with art are relevant and meaningful?
 EXPECTATIONS
What do people expect from art education?

On the pages provided, fill in a word balloon for each:

•Art students

•Parents

•Administrators
THE V.A.S.E. EFFECT
 observations
Many prominent art contests continue to perpetuate the myth
that the pinnacle of artistic achievement is the successful
production of super-realistic, photo-representational images
using traditional art materials.

The celebration of this notion is reinforced by administrators,

parents, students, and teachers who, in turn, expect to see
similar products from the art program at their schools.

Much of the award-winning work that is being celebrated as

the “best art” in these contests are technique-driven
assignments that reflect very little creativity, innovative
thinking, or artistic voice on the part of the student.
 questions

• How does this expectation of the role of art education

serve our students?

• Where does creativity fit into the equation?

• How does this perception of the role of art relate to the

actual potential of art?
Mrs. Hahn: A case study
 CONNECTIONS
How do expectations relate to student success beyond high school?

What percentage of your art students will make a living

off of making art after they graduate?
“0.00001 percent of high school students will make art
professionally after they graduate high school.”

- a recent study I made up

 How does the prominent expectation of the role of art
education serve our students?

1. Students who take art for the elective credit consider it a “blow-
off” class – they don’t understand the relevance.

2. Students who don’t possess the ability to execute technical

realism are undervalued and discouraged.

3. Students’ understanding of the value of art and the potential of

art education is limited to the production of “pretty” pictures.

4. Technique-driven assignments offer little opportunity for

meaningful, original thought or creativity.
 What is creativity and how does it fit into the equation?

Authentic creative thinking and problem-solving is one of

the most important skills an art class has to offer.

The ability to solve problems creatively is a skill that will

serve students universally after high school.
THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVITY
ASIA
‘Mericans vs “Foreigns”

ABUNDANCE
one product vs another

AUTOMATION
Humans vs Robots
How does this perception of the role of art relate to the
actual potential of art?

ART CAN BE PRETTY

ART LOOKS COOL
ART TAKES SKILL
ART CAN BE EXPRESSIVE
ART CAN BE CATHARTIC
ART CAN BE CHALLENGING
ART CAN BE PHILOSOPHICAL
ART CAN BE INSPIRING
ART CAN BE COMMUNICATIVE
ART CAN BE REVOLUTIONARY
ART CAN BE THOUGHT-PROVOKING
ART IS ESSENTIAL
CONTEST-WINNING ART vs CONTEMPORARY ART
 WHAT STUDYING ART HAS TAUGHT ME

•Observation Skills

•Suspension of Judgment

•Seek Meaning and Understanding

•Growth through Criticism

•Self Awareness
 SOLUTIONS
How can we ensure that our students’ experiences
with art are relevant and meaningful?

• Research, view, and discuss contemporary artists.

• Implement concept-driven assignments that may not

produce contest-worthy products.

• Encourage creative discoveries, solutions, and experiments.

• Play games that encourage creative thinking.

 ART TEKS
1. Four basic strands: perception, creative expression/performance,
historical and cultural heritage, and critical evaluation--provide
broad, unifying structures for organizing the knowledge and skills
students are expected to acquire. Students rely on their perceptions of
the environment, developed through increasing visual awareness and
sensitivity to surroundings, memory, imagination, and life experiences,
as a source for creating artworks. They express their thoughts and
ideas creatively, while challenging their imagination, fostering
reflective thinking, and developing disciplined effort and problem-
solving skills.

2. By analyzing artistic styles and historical periods students develop

respect for the traditions and contributions of diverse cultures.
Students respond to and analyze artworks, thus contributing to the
development of lifelong skills of making informed judgments and
evaluations.
1. Discussions/debates about contemporary art.

Josef Albers

Dan Flavin
Bruce Nauman, Human/Need/Desire, 1983
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917
Robert Ryman, Surface Veil I, 1970
Michael Craig-Martin, An Oak Tree, 1973
 “Featured Artist Friday”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZkRszO8DKI Kehinde Wiley

Cai Gio-Qiang
Ai Wei Wei
JR
Vic Muniz
3. Concept Oriented Projects

“MAKESHIFT GALLERY”
Inspired by Lollie Tompkins at the Booker T HSPVA and the “Passerby Gallery”
INTERACTIVE
POST-IT WALL
CROSS-COMPOSITION, NON-OBJECTIVE DESIGN
Shared by Kathleen Blake @ Mount St. Mary High School
MIXED MEDIA – JUXTAPOSITION COLLAGE
CORNELL-INSPIRED ASSEMBLAGE