The AEAI recognizes there are
many spectacular fine arts programs supported by enthusiastic administrators
and highly qualified teachers across the State of Indiana. While a small fraction of students
who participate in these programs go on to seek further education in visual
arts professions, it is important to remind the general public that one of the
most important benefits of a quality visual arts education is the development
of an array of thinking skills, related to the expansion of the imagination.
The visual arts, more than any other subject within the school curricula, focus
on the exploration and study of the image. Let us not forget the human mind
represents ideas and dreams through images. The development and growth of one’s
ability to express ideas with forms and images is the heart of the art
education experience. An examination of the activities taking place within the
art room reveal learning distinctive from other kinds occurring in regular
classrooms. Where much of the educational activity in today’s schools consists
of text-oriented seat work based on extended and selected response assessments,
the art room is that unique place where individuals are encouraged to
experiment and create with personal ideas using a myriad of artist materials
and techniques. Eight-year-old Greg has an idea for a drawing. In an earlier
lesson, Greg’s art teacher examined the expressive use of elements in the
paintings of Van Gogh. This presentation has inspired Greg to incorporate many
of these same elements of design into his own art. He begins by outlining the
shape of a giant S vertically onto the center of his paper. U-shaped scale
textures are rendered onto the surface of a giant dragon. Landscape elements
are incorporated into the picture. Greg continues adding more details in order
to animate his art. Working on a large sheet of paper, Greg knows his drawing
will require a lot of work. He enlists the help of his curious friends Jason,
Edward and Frank. The four boys discuss which areas of the drawing need further
development and work cooperatively over the next several class sessions. Greg
suggests they might render parts of the drawing with sophisticated drawing
techniques learned in previous lessons. They agree to use crayon resist and
crayon etching to enhance the drawing’s surface. Each day in class, the boys
reflect and evaluate the progress of the work before making new changes.
The activities that unfold in
the art room provide opportunities for children to prac- tice conveying ideas
into physical form. Greg’s example reveals the exploration of a complex story
concept and its manifestation from idea to visual representation. Executing the
steps to realize an idea and representing it in two, three, or four dimensions
requires individual attention to a vast array of quality control details. The
assembly of these qualities within an art work requires a synchronization of
consciousness with imagination and the sensory, emotive and cognitive realms.
School boards and administrators, who control the curricular offerings of their
local school districts, must be reminded from time to time that students, who
participate in art education programs, have increased cognitive advantages over
peers who have not had such experiences. Children with visual arts experiences
are more skill- ful at attending to detail, observing, innovating, inventing,
cooperating, and concep- tualizing with visual and mental forms than their
counterparts who have little or no practice in the visual arts. We are all born
with brains but the mind is cultivated through experience. Students engaged in
comprehensive art education learning experiences have greater opportunity to become
masters of their imagination. This is a bold claim, one that art educators do
not make lightly. We facilitate the expansion of our student’s imagination on a
daily basis. Whether we are studying the artistic creations of artists or
cultures, exercising children’s capacity to express forms or ideas based on
imaginative thought, sharpening our skills at observing and visual perception,
the refinement of imagination is one of the key areas of development in a
quality art education program. Sadly, the AEAI has received a growing number of
reports regarding the marginalization of visual arts programs in school
districts across the state. Ex- act numbers are hard to tabulate because
curricular deficiencies are something school districts do not like to publicize.
During the next year, AEAI will begin to gather more substantial data and
critically analyze this situation. A 2007 report from the Center on Education
Policy indicates 44% of 349 schools surveyed from across the U.S. cut
instructional time in one or more subjects at the elementary level in art,
music, social studies, civics, and physical education since 2002. Currently,
the Indiana State recommendations for student
learning in the visual arts are approximately 60 minutes per week for
elementary children and ninety minutes per week for middle school students.
High school graduation requirements for an academic honors diploma require at
least two elective courses in the fine arts. We know that learning is
time-sensitive. When a student who is interested in the visual arts is denied
course offerings because of program elimination or rule
changes that deny opportunity,
a student’s ability to fully realize their potential will have been
short-changed. It is hard to imagine what might have occurred in the
Renaissance if the 15th Century’s most important art teacher, Verrocchio, had
not influenced and facilitated the development of Leonardo da Vinci. A
citizenry populated with creative, divergent, imaginative thinkers will be most
beneficial to this state’s future prosperity. Ideas and intellectual property
dependent upon visual thinkers will become assets in the new economy of the
21st Century. The refinement of the imagination as developed through the visual
arts will provide future designers, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs,
innovators, professionals and others with the creative edge they will need to
compete in an increasingly competitive and uncertain future. Brainstorming
without perceptive, imaginative counterparts becomes an exercise of
inconsequential group think. If the education that shapes our children’s
thinking ability fails to engage the visual imagination at a psychologically
meaningful level, the well-rounded education U.S. Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings believes “all children deserve” will have been skewed. The
power to control curricular offerings within schools lies with elected school
boards and the administrators who advise them. Teachers and parents must stand
firm as a bulwark against possible arts education program cuts. Full consideration
for the development of imagination in our future citizenry will be of critical
importance if we are to face the challenges and solve the problems of the 21st
Century.
References:
Caouette, R. (2006,
Fall)Embracing the creative and conceptual age. Reston, VA:
NAEA Advisory.
Carp, R.M. (2004). Art
education and the Sign(ification) of the Self. Semiotics and Visual Culture:
Sights , Signs and Significance. Reston,
VA: National Art Education
Association.
Eisner, E. W. (2002). The Arts
and the Creation of Mind. New Haven & London: Yale University
Press.
Gajdamaschko, N. (2005)
“Vygotsky on Imagination: Why an understanding of the imagination is an
important issue for schoolteachers.” Teaching Education, 16(1), pp. 13-22.
Center on Education Policy.
(2007). Choices, Changes and Challenges: Curriculum and Instruction in the NCLB
Era. Retrieved 01/11/09 from: http://www.cep-dc.org U.S. Dept. of Ed., Teachers
ask the Secretary, Retrieved 01/07/09 from:
http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/reform/teachersask/index.html#arts.
Winner, E., Hetland, L.
(2007) Art for our sake. NAEA News, 49(6). Reprinted with permission from the
Boston Globe.
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