Appreciating Art
in the Primary Classroom
Art appreciation has a strong place in the NSW syllabus, and for very good reason. This can develop lateral thinking skills, creativity, imagination, empathy and open-mindedness. It can also be strongly integrated with literacy - talking and listening, and I believe will be easy to incorporate art appreciation indicators when reading picture books in literacy.
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| Portrait of a Dreaming Man by Douglas Prince |
With a partner we then discussed what the story of the man was. Anyone who wanted to share with the class afterwards could. There were many different imaginative interpretations: he was meditating, he was drowned, he was a being emerging from the Earth's core. Using a stimulus in this way is valuable for opening the door of artistic inquiry, and it also helps to demonstrate that many different perspectives and interpretations are valued and valid.
The creative art's ability to stimulate lateral and creative thinking is one of the reasons it is so essential in our education system. Instead of promoting the idea of just one correct answer (at the back of the text book), which is a danger of standardised testing and subsequent teaching to the test: the creative arts provides authentic learning opportunities. Eisner (1982) notes that, "the problems that most people have in their lives, the dilemmas that plague them the most, are quite unlike the clear and unambiguous solutions found in school textbooks and workbooks," in contrast to these black-and-white, true-false approaches, Eisner argues it is essential to prepare children for life by posing problems that aren't always black-and-white, and that reflect how often in life we are called on to use judgement. The creative arts teach these skills.
In looking at artworks in an open-ended way that encourages children to come up with many different interpretations, we teach students how to see and respect another's perspective and to be empathetic. The arts convey the spirit of the people who created them, and in doing so can help young people to acquire inter- and intra-cultural understanding (Jeanneret, article link). They are also transcultural - the invite cross-cultural communication and teach openness towards those who are different from us. By putting us in touch with our own and other people's feelings and perspectives, the arts teaches us how to be empathetic. I believe that open-ended, imaginative art appreciation is a wonderful way to build understanding, community, open-mindedness and empathy in the classroom.
The following is a wonderful clip about changing the education paradigm to one that has more place for the creative arts:
Workshop Ideas:
Feldman's Method &
Artwork Alphabet
Art Appreciation Methods:
The following two approaches were used in the workshop and can be used during interactions with works of art. They will assist with looking and thinking, and ultimately lead to understanding.
Feldman’s Method of
Critical Inquiry (“20 Questions” of ART CRITICISM)
Description (Taking an inventory of the visual
evidence in the artwork.)
1. Write down three questions that immediately come into your
mind as you look at this artwork (afterwards, think about how you would go
about finding answers to these questions).
2. Give the full name and nationality of the artist. What is the
title of the work?
Give the date the work was made
or completed. What are its dimensions?
In which museum or gallery can
this work be found?
3. What medium and/or technique is used by this artist?
4.
Can you identify the subject
matter of this artwork? (still life, landscape, figure, portrait, genre,
narrative/history, abstraction, fantasy, allegory/symbolism) Now, accurately describe what you see in the
subject matter using specific language.
Write about “the facts” that you observe directly. No opinions.
5.
Which elements of design are
most important in this artwork (line, shape/form, texture, colour, value)?
Describe where these are located and how they appear (use descriptive
words/adjectives).
Analysis (Discovering relationships among the separate
parts of the artwork.)
6. What appears to be the focal point or area of emphasis in
this artwork?
How is it made so
important? Is contrast present?
7. Can you find a place where the artist/designer has used some type
of rhythm in this artwork?
8.
How has the artist/designer
created a sense of balance in this work?
What parts of the work contribute to this balance? Is this an example of
symmetrical or asymmetrical balance?
9. How has the artist/designer used colour to create unity in
this work? Remember your colour theory.
Interpretation (Discovering the purpose or meaning of the
artwork.)
10. What specific
emotions or feeling does this work arouse in the viewer?
11. What is the subject
matter? Does it represent something
else? What is this work “about”?
12. How does the title of
this work add to its meaning?
13. Why was this artwork
created? What purpose does it serve?
14. Who was/is the
intended audience? Was it created for a particular group or individual?
15. Does this work appear
to belong to a particular period in history or a specific art style?
16. How does this artwork
connect with our present society or culture? Does this artwork “speak” to you?
Evaluation (Judging the quality or relative value of
the artwork.)
17.
What do you admire about
this artwork? What are your reasons? (Look back at some of the things that you
have already said.)
18. Do you think this
artist has been successful in communicating something to the viewer? Why or why
not?
19. Which of the
following statements best fits your reason for evaluating this artwork as you
have?
It is accurate and honest in the way it imitates real life.
It encourages strong emotions or feelings in the viewer.
It is visually well organized and has an exciting design.
It says something about our society, beliefs or concerns.
It presents the beauty and visual appeal of the subject.
20. How would you rate
this particular artwork? Other reasons?
Poor Mediocre Good Exceptional
Artwork Alphabet
Students are allocated into groups and given different artworks to focus on. Using the alphabet, they need to think of different words they could associate with the artwork for each letter. Once each group has had sufficient time to do this, the teacher goes through the alphabet and each group gives another letter.
This worked really well in our workshop as each group had very different artworks to work with and so it was interesting how different the words were.
References:
Eisner, E. (1982). Cognition and Curriculum: a basis for deciding what to teach. Now York: Longman.
Jeanneret, N. (?) Developing children's full potential: Why the arts are important. Accessed: http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/learning/k_6/arts/kids_potential.php
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