Notes on A Role for Aesthetics in Centering the K-12 Art Curriculum

Notes on A Role for Aesthetics in Centering the K-12 Art Curriculum


A Role for Aesthetics in Centering the K-12 Art Curriculum
Author(s): Tom Anderson and Sally McRorie
Source: Art Education, Vol. 50, No. 3, Framing the Art Curriculum (May, 1997), pp. 6-14
Published by: National Art Education Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193692
Accessed: 04/09/2009 13:23

“Two critical functions for aesthetics in art education: first, in directing student inquiry; and second, our focus here, in framing curricula and programs”

“Any lesson or curriculum teachers institute comes from what they believe is important to be taught, and the strategies they develop to teach that content.”

FORMALISM
“Formalist approaches to thinking about and making art have been the foundation for most United States college and university programs in the visual arts, including art teacher education, and most K-12 programs as well, at least since the end of World War II (Risatti, 1993). Formalist ideas include emphases upon (1) use of the elements and principles of design, (2) manipulation of materials with focus upon mastery of particular media, and ( 3) originality, all leading to production of objects that have" significant form," or that look good, look well crafted, aren't copies of other work, that in short, look like art with a capital ‘A.’”

"What is art?"
“…formalists emphasize form, how objects look, what materials are used, and what skills and techniques the artist has demonstrated”

“Form is a "universal language "according to formalists, not bound by social customs or ethnocentrism, and it is form to which we respond in a work from an entirely different culture or different time (Bell, 1914).”

"How and why do we value art?
“The best art communicates through appropriates election of elements and principles (color, balance, texture, and the like), and through the artist's technique (painterly surface, smooth patina, and so on) that it is art and not something else. The best art also shows originality.”

“…each good work of art is both a break from tradition (an avant-garde step) and a continuation of the progression of art.”

“Art is valued (and judged) for the qualities that set it apart from the rest of the world, the things that make it intrinsically important (Greenberg, 1986).”

“Formalist aestheticians often claim to have a democratic ideal of universal appreciation in mind in their emphasis on form and its related aspects, claiming these are qualities anyone can ostensibly see (Bell, 1914).”

"What is the function of art?”
“…formalists maintain that art does not have an instrumental function like arithmetic or cooking might, but exists for its own sake”

“…formalism manifested in school art curricula…leads to emphasis on the elements and principles of design”

“It also means emphasis on experimentation with media.”

“The formalist emphasis on originality results in mostly individual projects, where students work alone following the model of the solitary artist, with a well crafted, highly creative work of art as the goal in mind.”

CONTEXTUALISM
“Contextualists believe that the meaning and worth of art can only be determined in the context in which it's made and used.”

“Since art is communication that requires a shared code within a specific cultural matrix, they believe that there are no universal forms or meanings”

“The most extreme instrumentalists think this action should be reconstruction of existing social systems and that the value in art lies in its potential to change society (Lippard, 1990).”

“Nelson Goodman (1968)…argued that not only is there no predetermined meaning for visual and linguistic symbols, but that meanings for the same symbol can be different in different cultures and times because meanings are assigned.”

“George Dickie (1979/1974)…Dickie's socially centered argument held that art was not something that could be defined by looking at its formal or technical qualities, because there is no one set of qualities that can be found universally in all works of art”

“Dickie looked for a definition to the people who made, viewed, and used the work…in a specialized and hierarchical society, it is cultural institutions that speak for various specializations, Dickie claimed that it is the artworld (curators, painters, art historians, gallery owners, art teachers, and so on) that collectively defines art”

“Women, African Americans, and other representatives of cultural minorities have been under-represented in the artworld. They have felt left out of the so-called universal (formalist) agenda and have been the strongest advocates of the instrumental reconstructionists train of contextualism.”

“Many people have felt that the formalist agenda did not allow their stories to be told”

“Most people in most cultures have had very specific and clearly defined extrinsic purposes for art, from very basic function such as holding liquid, to reinforcement of collective beliefs, to propaganda.”

“A contextually oriented art curriculum, then, assumes that art has some purpose beyond being merely decorative or formally adept.”

“What you won't find in a pure contextualist curriculum, then, are technical and design solutions engaged in for their own sake. Pure aesthetic enjoyment is not a justified rationale for making art.”

“Particularly valuable are the development of analytic and interpretive skills which would help students analyze, interpret, and evaluate images.”

“In the contextualist curriculum, whether the activity is interpreting or making artworks, what is most valued is that the work tells us something of significance about the nature of human experience beyond the narrow boundaries of the artworld itself, and in many cases that it has the power to move us to some kind of action.”

“Fundamental human concerns (themes) are used as a framework to organize instruction as opposed to the common formalist practice of organizing curricula around elements and principles of design and/or media and techniques.”

“Ultimately, the final defining characteristic of the contextualist curriculum is that it in some way helps us to understand people through their art rather than art for its own sake.”

CONCLUSION
“By now it should be clear that neither a purely formalist aesthetic position, with its emphases on elements and principles, media exploration, and originality, nor a purely contextualist one, with its emphases on communication and socially relevant subject matter, is adequate to ground a comprehensive art program”

“Therefore, we advocate a pragmatic combination of contextualism and formalism to conceptually center the K-12 art curriculum.”

“Rather, their combination allows for an almost infinite range of highly suitable art curricula that are locally specific, that include themes that fire students' individual imaginations as well as their collaborative social consciences, and that integrate art skills and techniques enabling them to effectively communicate their ideas in visual form.”

“…consider what your centering concepts say to your students, parents, other teachers, principal, community members, and other stakeholders about what art is, what its functions are, and why it should be valued in the schools. In answering these questions, community concerns should be balanced by issues and skills that you, as the art expert, know your students need for a meaningful education in art.”