Visual arts education
Visual arts education is the area of learning that is based upon the kind of art that one can see, visual arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practical fields such as commercial graphics and home furnishings. Contemporary topics include photography, video, film, design, and computer art. Art education may focus on students creating art, on learning to criticize or appreciate art, or some combination of the two.
Approaches
Art is often taught through drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and mark making. Drawing is viewed as an empirical activity which involves seeing, interpreting and discovering appropriate marks to reproduce an observed phenomenon. Drawing instruction has been a component of formal education in the West since the Hellenistic period. In East Asia, arts education for nonprofessional artists typically focused on brushwork; calligraphy was numbered among the Six Arts of gentlemen in the Chinese Zhou dynasty, and calligraphy and Chinese painting were numbered among the four arts of scholar-officials in imperial China.An alternative approach to art education involves an emphasis on imagination, both in interpreting and creating art. Many educators will ask their students "Why do you think the artist made this choice?", once they have given an answer, they will give them the context of the piece, then ask them again. This is to get students to consider the deeper meaning behind works, rather than just showing them a pretty picture. Art education is also about experimentation and purposeful play and linking their art to conceptual messages and personal experiences. Allowing students to connect a piece to emotion, helps them better understand how the artwork connects to the artist and their subject, developing their critical thinking skills. Alternative approaches, such as visual culture and issue-based approaches in which students explore societal and personal issues through art, also inform art education today.
Prominent curricular models for art education include:
- A sixfold model divided into "Creative-Productive, Cultural-Historical and Critical-Responsive" components in some provinces of Canada
- Discipline Based Art Education came to favor in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, and it focused on specific skills including techniques, art criticism and art history. Heavily backed by the Getty Education Institute for the Arts, DBAE faded after the Institute ceased funding in 1998.
- Teaching for Artistic Behavior is a choice-based model that began in the 1970s in Massachusetts in the United States. TAB suggests that students should be the artists and be guided on their own individual artistic interests.TAB based curricular models have increased in popularity as classroom culture shifts from preference of direct instruction to student-centered and Inquiry-based learning.
Some studies show that strong art education programs have demonstrated increased student performance in other academic areas, due to art activities' exercising their brains' right hemispheres and delateralizing their thinking. Also see Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
Art education is not limited to formal educational institutions. Some professional artists provide private or semi-private instruction in their own studios. This may take the form of an apprenticeship in which the student learns from a professional artist while assisting the artist with their work. One form of this teaching style is the Atelier Method as exemplified by Gustave Moreau who taught Picasso, Braque and many other artists.
Apprenticeship
Historically art was taught in Europe via the atelier method system where artists took on apprentices who learned their trade in much the same way as that of craft guilds such as the stonemasons or goldsmiths. During their free time formal training took place in art workshops or, more often, in homes or alone outside. It was in these ateliers that artists learned the craft through apprenticeship to masters, a relationship that was controlled by guild statutes. Florentine contracts dating from the late 13th century state that the master was expected to clothe and feed the apprentice, who was called upon to be a faithful servant in return. An apprentice often paid the master during the early years of his education; assuming the apprenticeship was productive, the student would be compensated later in his training. Northern European workshops featured similar terms.Initially, learning to draw was a priority in this system. Michelangelo recommended that a young painter spend a year on drawing alone, then six years grinding colors, preparing panels and using gold leaf, during which time the study of drawing would continue. Another six years would be required to master fresco and tempera painting.
Historically, design has had some precedence over the fine arts with schools of design being established all over Europe in the 18th century. These examples of skill and values from the early European art inspired later generations, including the Colonists of early America.
Cultural appropriation within the classroom
Individuals who employ cultural appropriation have the ability to produce works of considerable aesthetic merit. Using properties of art from different cultures such as decoration or emulation of creative process can foster a greater understanding and appreciation of crafts from different cultures. This technique can be appreciated in the production of African or Native-American mask making projects, where students emulate technique and explore new material use and construction methods which esteem those practices of different cultures.By country
Argentina
The leading country in the development of the arts in Latin America, in 1875 created the National Society for the Stimulus of the Arts, founded by painters Eduardo Schiaffino, Eduardo Sívori, and other artists. In 1905, their guild was rechartered as the National Academy of Fine Arts, then in 1923, on the initiative of painter and academic Ernesto de la Cárcova, became a department in the University of Buenos Aires, under the name of Superior Art School of the Nation. Currently, the country's leading educational organization for the arts is the UNA Universidad Nacional de las Artes.Australia
Australian Universities which have Visual / Fine Art departments or courses within their institutions have moved from Studio Based teaching models, associated with Art Schools, to more integrated theoretical / practical emphasis. University of Western Australia has moved from a master's degree with theoretical emphasis to a theoretical BA Art degree.Studio based teaching initiatives integrating contextual and media elements have been implemented as part of a national Studio Teaching Project supported by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council since 2007.
Egypt
The first modern art school in Egypt was opened in 1908 as the Cairo College of Fine Arts. These early art schools largely taught the Western aesthetic traditions. As a result, after independence there was an effort to incorporate Egyptian and Middle Eastern traditions into art and art appreciation courses. However, the process was slow; students at Cairo College of Fine Arts were not able to major in non-European art history until 1999.France
The first academy, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, was founded in 1648.Nowadays, artistic education, which includes visual arts education, is a mandatory part of the school education from the second cycle on and runs until the end of the lower secondary school '.
There are art-focused classes ' in some schools that provide advanced art education in parallel to the normal primary or lower secondary education. In the upper secondary schools, it is possible to prepare a baccalauréat technologique in sciences and technologies of design and applied arts.
In tertiary education, dedicated schools propose a diplôme national des métiers d'art et du design with several diplômes des métiers d'art, and then diplôme supérieur d'arts appliqués.
Italy
s were established in Italy as early as the 13th century, starting with a painting school in Venice founded by a Greek painter named Theophanes around 1200.The Netherlands
The Dutch Art Teachers Association was founded in 1880 and began to publish a monthly magazine in 1884. Since the late 20th century, the growing diversity of Dutch society has made Dutch art and art education increasingly multicultural.United Kingdom
Formal art education emerged in the United Kingdom in the early 19th century, motivated in part by a desire to match the quality of design work being done in France. The model initially adopted was that of the German commercial schools. Prince Albert was particularly influential in the creation of schools of Art in the UK.Currently in the UK, the art curriculum is prescribed by the government's National Curriculum except in public or fee paying schools. Prince Charles has created The Prince's Drawing School in Hoxton to preserve the teaching of academic drawing.
AccessArt
AccessArt is a British arts charity and membership organization, working across the UK to further 'the advancement of visual arts education'. It is the leading provider of digital visual arts resources in the UK, with over 22,000 schools as paying members, using AccessArt's educational materials in their teaching.Founded in 1999 by Royal College of Art graduates, Paula Briggs and Sheila Ceccarelli and registering as a charity in 2004. Projects include:
Inspire: A celebration of children's art, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge."The first exhibition of work made by primary school children at The Fitzwilliam Museum in its 250 year history and was designed in partnership with AccessArt.""The Inspire project demonstrates how a regional art museum can serve as a hub for teacher training and development and support the development of a community of practice around art and design education."