Twenty-First Century Skills in Art Education

Twenty-First Century Skills in Art Education

Joni H. Hough

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

            According to the National Task Force on the Arts in Education (2009), the National Center for Education Statistics shows that in the last thirty years, schools in the United States have dropped from international leaders to lagging behind many industrialized countries in every subject.  “Twenty-first century skills” has become a buzz phrase in education as a way to improve schools in the United States and regain standing as an international education leader.  Delacruz (2009) states that,

“…technology is ubiquitous…kids and families, students and communities are plugged in, cued to the latest electronic developments and diversions, ready to creatively adapt them to their own purposes.  Schools and policy makers are increasingly focused on what teachers need to know about and do with technology” (p. 13).  

Policy makers are quickly trying to integrate these skills into education standards.  For example, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (n.d.), North Carolina is in the middle of a five year process of completely reworking all K-12 curriculum standards, student testing assessment strategies, and school accountability programs to improve their alignment with twenty-first century skills.

            While students will need to be fluent in the use of a variety of technological devises to succeed in the twenty-first century, and teaching those skills is vital to students’ futures, technology is not an all-encompassing answer.  According to Bassett (2005), great twenty-first century schools, “…will expect proficiency, fluency, multicultural literacy, and high-quality performance by students in a variety of areas” (p. 77).  Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (2009) is more in depth in defining twenty-first century skills.  They divide twenty-first century skills into four categories:  Core Subjects and Twenty-First Century Themes, Life and Career Skills, Learning and Innovation Skills, and Information, Media, and Technology Skills.

            The core subjects include traditional subjects like English/language arts, world languages, arts, math, economics, science, geography, history, and civics.  However, Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (2009) advocates weaving twenty-first century themes into the core subjects.  These include:  global awareness, financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy, civic literacy, health literacy, and environmental literacy.

            They also promote skills in learning and innovation.  These include creativity and innovation, meaning creative thinking, working creatively with others, and implementing innovations.  Critical thinking and problem solving are stressed, which includes using effective reasoning, using systems thinking, making judgments and decisions, and solving problems.  Communication and collaboration skills are also encouraged.  This consists of communicating clearly and accurately in a variety of formats and collaborating with diverse people in a respectful manner (Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, 2009).

            Further, Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (2009) emphasizes information, media, and technology skills.  This includes accessing, evaluating, using, and managing information, analyzing media and creating media products, applying technology effectively as a tool for researching, organizing, evaluating, and communicating information, and understanding the ethical and legal issues related to using technology

Finally, Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (2009) encourages the teaching of life and career skills that students need in the twenty-first century.  These include the ability to be flexible and adapt to changes, manage goals and time effectively, work independently, and be a self-directed learner, work effectively with others in diverse teams, manage projects and produce results, as well as guide, lead, and be responsible to others.

These are invaluable skills that students must have to succeed in the future, but they are also skills students need to learn now.  According to the National Art Education Association’s [NAEA] report, Learning in a Visual Age: The Critical Importance of Visual Arts Education (2009),

“Every day, American young people spend more than four hours watching television, DVDs or videos; one hour using a computer; and 49 minutes playing video games. In many cases, youths are engaged in two or more of these activities at the same time. Little wonder this era has become known as the ‘digital age,’ and Americans born after 1980 have become known as ‘digital natives’” (p. 3).

Freedman (2000) further iterates that,

“…a shift in the cultural sphere-above all, the emergence of an all-encompassing visual culture-has fundamentally transformed the nature of political discourse, social interaction, and cultural identity. Visual culture is expanding, as is the realm of the visual arts.  This realm includes fine art, television, film and video, computer technology, fashion photography, advertising, and so on. The increasing pervasiveness of such forms of visual culture, and the freedom with which these forms cross traditional borders, can be seen in the use of fine art in advertising, realistic computer generated characters in films, and video museum exhibitions” (p. 315-316).

According to Delacruz (2009),

“…the democratizing impact of the Internet phenomenon no less profound and transformative of human civilization and consciousness as the invention of the printing press.  The potential of technology includes its ability to compress time and space, to form virtual communities in cyberspace, and to facilitate creativity, cultural production, collaboration, and resource sharing among individuals in worldwide networks.  But that potential is also confounded by problems and dangers: the digital divide, privatization and commercialization of the Internet and its contents, loss of privacy, copyright restrictions that limit access and uses of information, censorship, fear of litigation, and cyber-bullying and Internet sexual predators” (p. 14).

With students bombarded with so much mass media and visual culture, it is imperative that they learn to assess and evaluate the information they are consuming now.  Students need to learn how to protect their privacy and the privacy of others.  Through age-appropriate instruction for students and education for parents, students will learn how to safely navigate new technologies and have access to a world that was unimaginable a few decades ago.   According to Freedman (2000), 

“From my social perspective, it is the responsibility of our field to address the issues and problems of student experience with visual culture. Unlike the strongest traditions of our field, which have focused heavily on promoting an appreciation of the visual arts of the past, art education from this perspective is concerned with taking a more critical stance and addressing the increasingly difficult challenges of the visual arts in the future” (325). 

This is no longer some far off future that educators have to prepare for.  It is students’ lives now. 

            Unfortunately, there are drawbacks to new technologies that cannot be overcome as easily as teaching visual culture to students.  Delacruz (2009) states,

“Two of the most striking aspects of the electronic revolution are that kids are leading the way and that schools are lagging behind. Schools are incompatible with students' current ways of working with new technologies. Schools' computers are slower, less capable, less interesting, and less accessible to today s media-savvy youth.  School culture also truncates teacher innovation, and for many reasons: teacher resistance to top-down mandates, poor school technology infrastructures, ill-conceived or inadequate technology professional development opportunities and incentives and standardization and restrictive school and community mores and expectations.  Art teachers' utilization of new digital media in innovative ways is far from common practice” (p. 14). 

While Delacruz is correct that many students are more media savvy than their teachers, this is not the case for all students.  Jenkins, Purishotma, Clinton, Weigel, and Robinson (n.d.) state that many of the programs in schools to teach twenty-first century skills do not “…address the fundamental inequalities in young people’s access to new media technologies and the opportunities for participation they represent (what we call the participation gap)” (p. 12).

In addressing the participation gap, Jenkins, et al (n.d.), continue on to say,

“Expanding access to computers will help bridge some of the gaps between digital haves and have nots, but only in a context in which free wi-fi is coupled with new educational initiatives to help youth and adults learn how to use those tools effectively” (p. 13).

Regrettably, many teachers and schools do not have the resources for these initiatives.  Even the teachers who can or do want to employ newer technologies do not have administrative or technical support.  Delacruz (2009) points out,

“It’s not merely because teachers are resistant to change, although teacher resistance continues to be an impediment.  Technology introduces new-world thinking onto an old-world system of top-down, teacher-centered curriculum delivery systems and prescriptive educative content.  Old world schooling prizes the standardization of predictable learning goals and an assessment system designed for easy measurement of performance on nationalized, norm-referenced tests rather than a real desire to understand what students really think, know, care about, or are able to do. In such a system, the more unusual the classroom teacher's technology innovation, the less likely it is to be supported in schools” (p. 14).

            With no computer access at home, outdated computer at school, and limited support from administration for teachers, where are underprivileged students to go to gain access to new technologies?  Local libraries should be an answer.  However, as Jenkins et al (n.d.) state,

“What a person can accomplish with an outdated machine in a public library with mandatory filtering software and no opportunity for storage or transmission pales in comparison to what person can accomplish with a home computer with unfettered Internet access, high bandwidth, and continuous connectivity. (Current legislation to block access to social networking software in schools and public libraries will further widen the participation gap.) The school system’s inability to close this participation gap has negative consequences for everyone involved.  On the one hand, those youth who are most advanced in media literacies are often stripped of their technologies and robbed of their best techniques for learning in an effort to ensure a uniform experience for all in the classroom.  On the other hand, many youth who have had no exposure to these new kinds of participatory cultures outside school find themselves struggling to keep up with their peers” (p. 13).

In this case, schools are doing a disservice to all students.  With all of the recent budget cuts to many school systems around the country, closing the participatory gap does not seem likely in the near future.

            While art educators cannot address all of the skills students need for the twenty-first century, there are some that art education already addresses.   In fact, the lessons students learn from the arts are essential for their success.  For example, Hetland and Winner state in the NAEA (2009) report, Learning in a Visual Age: The Critical Importance of Visual Arts Education,

“While students in art classes learn techniques specific to art, such as how to draw, how to mix paint, or how to center a pot, they’re also taught a remarkable array of mental habits not emphasized elsewhere in schools.  These habits include observing, envisioning, innovating, and reflecting…though far more difficult to quantify on a test than reading comprehension or math computation, each has a high value as a learning tool, both in school and elsewhere in life” (p. 5).

The same report further states, “visual arts instruction also helps students learn to value diverse perspectives and cultures, something that is increasingly important in a global society” (p. 7).  In addition, Gude (2009) states, “through artworks, students absorb the perceptions of others— situated in other times and places, embodied in other races, genders, ages, classes, and abilities” (p.4).

            While most visual arts classes attend to some twenty-first century skills, a Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) classroom addresses even more.  Douglas (2009) points out that in a choice-based art class, students develop and expand learning and innovation skills, technology skills, and life and career skills, which are key skills according to Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (2009). 

Under the learning and innovation skills category, students learn critical thinking and problem solving skills by finding and solving their own artistic problems and by using a variety of learning strategies, including inquiry, divergent thinking, play, experimentation, planning ahead, reflection and evaluation.  Students develop creativity and innovation because intrinsically motivated students respond to problems in original and imaginative ways.  Also, the predictability of studio centers allows students to refine their ideas over time, giving depth to their work that cannot be achieved in a planned three day lesson.  Students learn to communicate their ideas through their artist’s statement that accompanies their work in art shows.  They also learn to communicate their needs because they are motivated to do well because their work is self-directed.  Moreover, students learn to work together based on common goals and peers learn to help each other as some students become “experts” in certain areas (Douglas, 2009).

            In a TAB classroom, students and teachers utilize technology in a variety of ways.  Teachers use technology to present information to the whole class, small groups, or to work individually with students.  Students use computers to research ideas, find visual examples, and to expand concepts.  Students also document and comment on their work in digital portfolios.  Students also use technology for creating art.  Students use digital photography, image manipulation, animation, and other graphic programs to make their art (Douglas, 2009).

            Opportunities for students to learn life and career skill are abundant in the TAB classroom.  Students learn to be flexible and adaptable because every class begins with a demonstration or discussion of a new concept, idea, or technique, students learn to work with the materials that are available to them, and TAB teachers model these skills by responding to students’ new ideas and artistic processes.  Students take initiative by setting up their materials, beginning work, and putting away their materials at the end of class without teacher assistance.  They are self-directed because they are intrinsically motivated because they are making their own work with their own personal context.  Social skills are learned through collaborative work with classmates.  Negotiations occur as students navigate shared materials and space.  Students learn about their own styles and perspectives as well as the styles and perspectives of other students through discussions of ongoing and completed work.  Students also learn about other cultures through whole class demonstrations and discussions, as well as when it is relevant to their work or a small group in the class.  Students are expected to be productive by coming to class with ideas or a willingness to experiment with new materials.  Because student work is self-directed, they are held accountable for their progress.  Although, the teacher organizes the classroom environment, it is students’ responsibility to maintain it by taking care of materials, and keeping studio center clean and organized.  Students take on leadership roles by helping peers, helping curate exhibits, or even designing new studio centers (Douglas 2009).

It is vital that art educators teach as many twenty-first century skills as possible.  Not only is it of utmost importance to students, but is also an additional tool for art advocacy.  It is also crucial that art educators work with colleagues in other subject areas to insure that all twenty-first century skills are addressed so that all students can reach their personal and professional goals in the present and in their futures.  

References

Bassett, P. F. (2005). Reengineering schools for the 21^st century. [Electronic Version]. The

Phi Delta Kappan 87(1), 76-78, 83.

Delacruz, E. M. (2009). Art education aims in the age of new media: Moving toward global civil

society. [Electronic Version]. Art Education 62(5), 13-18.

Douglas, K. (2009). Teaching for artistic behavior supports 21^st century skills. Retrieved from

http://teachingforartisticbehavior.org/21stcenturyskills.html

Freedman, K. (2000). Social perspectives on art education in the U.S.:  Teaching visual culture in

a democracy. [Electronic Version]. Studies in Art Education 41(4), 314-329.

Gude, O. (2009). Art education for democratic life. [Electronic Version]. Art Education 62(6), 6-

11.

Jenkins, H., Purishotma, R, Clinton, K, Weigel, M, & Robinson, A. J. (n.d.). Confronting the

challenges of participatory culture:  Media education for the 21^st century.  Retrieved from

http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf

Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. (2009). P21 framework definitions. Retrieved from

http://www.p21.org/

National Art Education Association. (2009). Learning in a visual age:  The critical importance of

visual arts education. Retrieved from http://www.arteducators.org/learning/learning-in-a-visual-age/NAEA_LVA_09.pdf

National Task Force on the Arts in Education. (2009). Arts at the core:  Recommendations for

advising the state of arts education in the 21^st century. Retrieved from

http://www.arteducators.org/advocacy/arts-task-force-report.pdf

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (n.d.).  ACRE:  Accountability and curriculum

reform effort.  Retrieved from   http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/

Multicultural Paper: Mmapula Mmagoba “Helen” Sebidi

Joni Hough

March 20, 2010

ARTE 5122

Multicultural Paper:

Mmapula Mmagoba “Helen” Sebidi

Mmapula Mmagoba Sebidi is a South African painter, sculptor, and collage artist.  She was born in 1943 and grew up under apartheid, which greatly influenced her life and her artwork.  Professionally, she uses the name Helen Sebidi. 

South Africa has a long history that predates written language.  Archeological evidence suggests that South African people were trading with Chinese people as early as the twelfth century (SouthAfrica.info, n.d.).  South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the seventeenth century. English domination of the Dutch descendents (known as Boers or Afrikaners) resulted in the Dutch establishing the new colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal.  The discovery of diamonds around 1900 resulted in an English invasion which sparked the Boer Wars.   In 1948, the Afrikaner National Party gained political power and created apartheid.  Apartheid was the social and political policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority governments in South Africa (The History of Apartheid in South Africa, n.d.). 

Policies under apartheid included 1950’s Population Registration Act, which required that all South Africans be racially classified as either white, black (African), or colored (of mixed decent or Asian), the Group Areas Act, which assigned races to different residential and business sections in urban areas, and the Land Acts of 1954 and 1955 restricted nonwhite residence to specific areas (The History of Apartheid in South Africa, n.d.).

Despite the risks, resistance to apartheid existed within South Africa.  A number of groups opposed apartheid using a variety of tactics, including violence, strikes, demonstrations, and sabotage.  These strategies were often met with severe punishment by the government.  Many artists, including Sebidi, created works that protested apartheid in more subtle ways that were less likely to incur scrutiny from government officials.  There was also resistance to apartheid from the international community, which included sanctions from the United Nations.  In 1994 the country's constitution was finally rewritten and free general elections were held for the first time.  Nelson Mandela was elected as South Africa's first black president and the last vestiges of the apartheid system were finally outlawed (Robinson, n.d.).

            

Because of the migrant labor system under Apartheid, Sebidi was raised by her grandmother in rural, Marapyane, while her parents worked in Johannesburg (South African Resistance Art, n.d.).  From her grandmother, Sebidi learned traditional mural painting and pottery.  She was forced to quit school after the eighth grade and at the age of 16, Sebidi moved to Johannesburg to help support her family.  She worked as a domestic servant for a German expatriate, from whom she learned about easel painting (Peffer, 2009 and Arnold, 1997).

            While in Johannesburg, Sebidi studied oil painting from John Koenakeefe Mohl, a figurative and landscape painter, who had studies in West Germany.  From Mohl, Sebidi learned Western styles of illusionism, which she employed in her idealistic paintings of rural life.  Mohl would later encourage Sebidi to create the work that became her first solo art exhibit (South African Resistance Art, n.d.).

            

In the early 1970’s, Sebidi moved back to Marapyane to care for her aging grandmother and to raise her child.  She continued painting idealistic images of rural life and in 1977 she began traveling to Johannesburg monthly to sell her art at the Artists Under the Sun market.  Sebidi’s work, which was mostly apolitical at this time, was popular with white patrons allowing her to make a living from selling her work (South African Resistance Art, n.d.).

After the death of her grandmother, Sebidi moved back to Johannesburg to further study and teach art. In 1985, Sebidi became involved with the Katlehong Art Centre, where she began making pottery and terra-cotta sculptures. The goal of the Katlehong Art Centre was to create awareness about black artists and to teach artists how to market themselves and become self-sufficient. It was also a way to create a professional South African black art, without it being labeled traditional or township art.  At the Katlehong Art Centre, Sebidi created the work that she showed in her first solo art exhibit in 1986.  Sebidi was the first black woman to have a solo art exhibit in South Africa.  In 1986, Sebidi also joined the Johannesburg Art Foundation, where she discovered modern styles of abstraction and collage.  The Johannesburg Art Foundation was an art school where black and white South African artists worked together and it was often under police scrutiny (South African Resistance Art, n.d.).

Since the end of apartheid in 1994, Sebidi has continued to work as an artist in Johannesburg.  She has exhibited within South Africa and internationally and her work is featured in many private collections.  The South African President presented Sebidi with the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver in 2004 and the Order of the Baobab in Gold in 2008 for her excellent contribution to the field of visual and traditional arts and craft (South African History Online, n.d. & Artist’s Proof Studio, n.d.).

            

In Sebidi’s early work, she “opted to render memories of a harmonious interaction between humankind and nature”, such as in 1972’s Rural Scene (Arnold, 1996, p. 137).  She was strongly influenced by the figurative and landscape work of her mentor and teacher, John Koenakeefe Mohl (South African Resistance Art, n.d.).  In this work, Sebidi portrays traditional women’s work in rural South Africa, with three women, each with a child strapped to her back and a basket on her head.   By showing the women from behind, Sebidi treats the subjects as archetypes rather than as individuals.  The strong vertical lines created by the women and exaggerated by the dark baskets on their heads, shows the strength of the African woman. The horizontal lines created by the vegetation on the hill and in the horizontal alternating on pale blues and yellow in the sky implies a sense of peacefulness in the rural landscape.  The diagonal movement of the staggered women, the diagonal lines of the women’s clothes, and the sloping hillside, combined with the bright yellow paint that Sebidi carries throughout the painting creates a feeling of harmony and balance in Sebidi’s work.  This harmony produces an idealistic impression of rural life.

            

Sebidi’s work drastically changed after she joined the Johannesburg Art Foundation (Arnold, 1996).  There she discovered abstraction and collage and abandoned the illusionistic style of her early work.  She spent her first year at the Johannesburg Art Foundation creating figure studies.  She painted a multitude of hands, feet, and portraits (South African Resistance Art, n.d.).  According to the Iziko Museums of Cape Town, Sebidi said, "First I kept on drawing figures in the studio, feet, hands, portraits; and I kept all this rubbish from the whole year piling up on the carpet. At the end of the year I said to myself, 'I want to see if I can grow these up', I took myself away from other people - I said 'Now break all this in pieces and see what comes out.'  What came out was the deconstruction and reconstruction of space and form, of images literally torn apart, fragmented and reworked, reconstituted in collage" (Iziko Museums of Cape Town, 2001).  Sebidi used this collage technique in her 1988-89 piece, The Child's Mother Holds the Sharp Side of the Knife. 

In this work, Sebidi has packed a multitude of images into the picture to express several ideas.  As suggested by the title, this collage addresses the roles of women in South African society.  When explaining this work, Sebidi said, "I see a woman chained, pulling her tradition.  In our language they always say 'yours is yours.'  You've got to handle it, you've got to be, don't let go . . . In African tradition they say it is the woman who holds the sharp side of the knife.  Here, woman is holding the knife in this way and is saying: 'this is what I have to do, and it's my way'" (South African Resistance Art, n.d.).

           

As with many of the collages Sebidi created during the late 1980’s, she has crowded the picture plane with numerous images of people.  These people are so jammed together that in the background they cease to be individuals as body parts are crammed into each other becoming visually indecipherable.  With this technique, Sebidi illustrates the congestion of the urban areas that black South Africans are allowed to occupy because of the Group Areas Act and the Land Acts under apartheid. 

            

The faces of the people in this collage demonstrate another theme in Sebidi’s work.  Most of the faces are created with half of the face in one color and the other half of the face in another color.  These disruptions in color symbolize the schism between traditional, rural life of black South Africans and fast-paced, overcrowded urban areas where many black South Africans migrated to find work.

            

After apartheid, Sebidi’s work took on a lighter note.  In her composition, Hope It Comes Back, she still utilizes the bright colors and fragmented faces that became the signature of her collages, but her images lack the crowded picture plane of her work from the mid 1980’s through the early 1990’s.  As in her early work, Sebidi shows the sky and land with an optimistic, idealistic feel.  In this image, an adult holds up a child to pick a flower as several people watch, as if a tradition is being passed down from one generation to

the next.  The onlookers, though crowded together, still have space around them.  There is a sense of freedom to move around.  Though the people are still shown in a fragmented style, they no longer have to two-tone faces Sebidi used to express the schism between urban and rural life.  The people, with their heavy dark lines, do not seem to have forgotten the hard past, but the bright colors of the people and vegetation along with the title, convey a sense of hopefulness about the future of South Africa.

           

Mmapula Mmagoba “Helen” Sebidi’s work shows the progression of her life, from a girl growing up in rural South Africa, to a woman working under the harshness of apartheid in the crowded metropolis of Johannesburg, then an artist working in a free South Africa who has been honored by the government.  The themes of her work include idealistic landscapes, people crowded beyond decipherability, the struggle of black South African women, the schism between rural and urban living, and hope for the future.  Through Sebidi’s work, students can learn about how an artist’s social, cultural, and political background influences her artwork.

Resources

Arnold, M. (1996). Women and the art in South Africa. St. Martin’s Press. New York. p. 138-

142.

Artist’s Proof Studio (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.artistproofstudio.org.za

The History of Apartheid in South Africa (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www-cs-

students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html

Iziko Museums of Cape Town (2001).  Retrieved from http://www.iziko.org.za/sang/

exhib/2001/headnorth/artists.htm#Helen Sebidi

Peffer, J. (2009). Art and the end of apartheid. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN.

p. 67-72.

Robinson, A. J. (n.d.).  Africana Encyclopedia.  Retrieved from http://www.africanaencyclopedia.com/apartheid/apartheid.html

South African Resistance Art (n.d.). Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/18799/

index.html.

South African History Online (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sahistory.org.za.

Art Issues Paper

Joni Hough

February 19, 2010

ARTE 5122

Art Issue Paper

In art, traditional is non-Western and modern is Western. It is as simple as that! Or is it? Like most things, it is not that simple. Western and non-Western cultures have greatly influenced each other. Also, there are serious implications for art education when non-Western art is assumed to be traditional and Western art is assumed to be modern.

To begin this discussion, the terms “Western,” “non-Western,” “traditional,” and “modern” must be defined. Metcalfe (2010) points out that defining “Western” can be complicated, with the “exact scope of the Western World is somewhat subjective in nature, depending on whether cultural, economic or political criteria are used.” Although usually the countries of Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are included even though they are not all part of the Western Hemisphere (Metcalfe 2010). In Art History’s History, Minor (2001) states, “The term Western identifies enormous numbers of people of diverse concerns, ideologies, economic backgrounds, historical origins, classes and ethnicities” (p. 206). But Minor later points out that culturally “Western” refers to “European, Anglo, and American white men and women, educated beyond the secondary level by the study of great books, great works of art, great scientific theories, great philosophical systems, great forms of government, great religions, and great social institutions” (p. 206-207). By this definition, many people who are geographically Western are not culturally Western.

Defining “non-Western” is just as complicated. The term “non-Western” is biased by its very nature, because it refers to a large part of the world by what it is not, rather than what is. Synonyms used for non-Western, including, “preindustrial societies” (Congdon 1989, p. 180), “the Third World” (Minor 2001, p. 207), “the East” (Minor 2001, p. 207) and “traditional societies” (Strother 1995), are no less problematic. These terms are largely prejudicial and/or inaccurate in their descriptions. The regions generally associated with the non-West include Asia, Africa, India, Latin America, and the Middle East (Osborn 2009). Not only are these vastly different regions with their own cultures, but as with the countries in the West, they are not all even in the Eastern Hemisphere. These terms are insufficient, and educators need to use more precise language when referring to any part of the world.

Tradition, as defined by Delahunt (n.d.), “is the passing along of a culture from generation to generation, especially orally.” This method of socialization is not exclusive to either the West or the non-West. Some of the synonyms used to describe traditional art include primitive art, folk art, ethnic art, and indigenous art (Delahunt n.d.). These terms carry with them a connotation that traditional art is lesser than nontraditional art. According to Blocker (2001), traditional art is that which is produced by people who are not European or American. By this definition, non-Western art (and some Western art) is automatically traditional, simply by means of who made the art. This definition does not take into account the type of art, its purpose, or its context.

Gablik (1984) describes modernism as, “the term that has been used to describe the art and culture of the past hundred years” (p. 11). In Gablik’s definition there is no distinction made as to whether the art or culture of the past hundred years is Western or non-Western. This lack of distinction could be because Gablik believes that modernism is universal or it could be ethnocentrism, were Gablik is simply omitting then art and culture of the non-West. Blocker (2001) on the other hand, refers to modernism as the period, “in Europe roughly from the end of the seventeenth century through the early decades of the twentieth century” (p. 8). By this account, modernism is exclusively a Western phenomenon. According to Gablik (1984), Blocker (2001), and Minor (2001), the key idea of modernism is art for art’s sake. Blocker (2001) further states that the “ideas of ‘aesthetic enjoyment’ and ‘fine art’ and ‘artist’ were socially constructed and culturally inculcated in what we call the ‘modern’ period” (p. 8).

The idea that traditional art is non-Western and modern art is Western is not at all simple or accurate. This statement ignores the many artists in the West that do not prescribe to modernist notion of “art for art’s sake.” For example, African American artists, such as Jacob Lawrence and Faith Ringgold, whose works have highlighted social issues. Lawrence created a series of work that focused on the occupations available to African Americans in 1940’s Harlem. Ringgold’s triptych, Street Story Quilt, also set in Harlem, is a story of survival and redemption.

There are also examples of non-Western artists who have created modern art. For example, Indian artist, Natvar Bhavsar, whose formalist work deals with the color, yellow. Chilean artist, Matta’s (Roberto Matta Echaurren) Being With (Être Avec), is a massive surrealistic painting, which is a subgenre of modernism. Another non-Western modern artist is Israeli sculpture, Yaacov Agam. His 1966 piece, Relief Rhythm, is abstract geometric forms created from painted wood.

The statement, traditional art is non-Western and modern art is Western, also does not take into account the hybridization of the West and the non-West that has come from globalization. Artist Yinka Shonibare MBE, for instance, was born in England to Nigerian parents.   He grew up traveling between Lagos, Nigeria and London, England and his work deals with cultural identity (Art: 21 n.d.). African American artist, Elizabeth Catlett is another multicultural artist. Catlett began her career in the United States, but in 1946 she moved to Mexico, where she continues to live. She joined the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a printmaking workshop in Mexico City. Her work combines the printmaking she studied in Mexico with archetypal African American women, such as in her lithograph, Mother and Child (Metropolitan Museum of Art n.d.). Biracial artist, John Feodorov is of Navajo and European American decent. He grew up in the Suburbs of Los Angeles and on a Navajo reservation. Feodorov’s work comically confronts Native American stereotypes, as in his mixed-media sculpture, Animal Spirit Channeling Device for the Contemporary Shaman (Art: 21 n.d.).

Modern art can not exist without the influence of traditional arts. As modern artists try to produce something more unique and unusual, they find that, “to be modern now is to be traditional.”  Additionally, “Artists are finding that the only way to make something new is to borrow from the past.” (Gablik 1984, p. 117). This is true with many fiber artists, who utilize art techniques and media that often derives from the traditions of women’s domestic arts or folk art. For instance, Miriam Schapiro’s The Poet #2, uses fabric and quilt blocks (University Art Museum, University at Albany SUNY n.d.).

Pablo Picasso was influenced by the traditional Africa masks and Paul Gauguin drew inspiration from traditional Tahitian sculpture (Museum of Modern Art n.d.). This can be seen in Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and in Gauguin’s Te Atua (The Gods) from Noa Noa (Fragrance.)

Traditional influences can also be seen in many forms of architecture. For example, Houseplans.com (n.d.) features house plan categories for Tudor, Victorian, Colonial, and Plantation styles. Additionally, many of the United States’ federal buildings, such as the White House and the Supreme Court building, are designed after Greek and Roman architectural styles.

Vestiges of the past can be seen modern art. According to Minor (2001) “The ‘West’ as an idea results from a pattern of history that originates in Greece and Rome, moves through the Christian Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and into the European-Anglo culture and economy of the present day” (p. 208). For example, images of the Christian crucifixion have been portrayed throughout art history. A Byzantine book cover from Constantinople, from over a thousand years ago, has a crucifixion carved in it. There is also a 17th century brass crucifixion made by the Kongo peoples from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Romare Bearden’s Golgotha, from 1945, portrays a crucifixion using watercolor, India ink, and pencil on paper (Metropolitan Museum of Art n,d.). In 1987, Andres Serrano created controversy with his crucifixion photograph, Piss Christ (Artnet.com n.d.).

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There are serious implications for teachers who believe that Western art is modern and non-Western art is traditional. Minor (2001) states, “In the view of multiculturalism, accepting the Western or white consciousness as representing a natural or real view of the world is distorting and potentially racist” (p. 208). Chalmers (1992) goes further by pointing out that “art curricula, and much art educational thinking, are, or have been, ethnocentric,” which “is an implicit part of racism,” and occurs when “a person unreflectively takes his own culture's values as objective reality and automatically uses them as the context within which he judges less familiar objects and events...it does not occur to such a person that there is more than one point of view” (p. 134). This attitude is counterintuitive to teaching students to be the creative, critical thinkers. An ethnocentric curriculum does not address the needs of the diverse students of the United States.

To counteract the Western centric education students have received, Chalmers (1992) states that art teachers should be, “knowledgeable about and sensitive to students' differing cultural backgrounds, values, and traditions,” “demonstrate respect for cultures and backgrounds different from their own and acknowledge that all groups can produce and define cultural artifacts that are ‘excellent’ and that in all cultures ‘art’ exists for rather similar reasons,” “provide a classroom atmosphere in which students' cultures are recognized, shared, and respected,” “develop culturally appropriate curricula materials to supplement those whose treatment of different cultural groups is limited or biased,” and “give students an opportunity to explore what they do not know or understand about the arts of other cultures” (p. 142).

References

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