| Eric Hunter Artist & Art Educator |
Philosophy of Art Education
The development and continual growth of creative expression and critical reflective response are the foundation of a solid visual arts education. There are three broad areas to balance in developing a strong studio arts program. First, the program must reflect the larger global community; students are often diverse in skills, interests, culture, and economics. Second, the curriculum should be interdisciplinary; the strength of maintaining a civil society lies in the balance of disciplines. John Dewey argues in Art as Experience, “individual expression and community are interconnected.” By creating this connection, the art object unites people in a collective, creative process (Olson-Horswill). Third, the student should explore their creativity within the parameters of the lessons, be encouraged to push beyond their comfort zone, and learn the value of the critique.
Corita Kent, when teaching in the art department at Immaculate Heart College said, “Find a place to trust and then try trusting it for awhile” (Steward, 2008). Students of the visual arts require a stimulating and challenging environment to work in, but it must be safe and supportive. Students should not fear failure, but learn to consider the making process as experimental and incremental. Mistakes do not exist, because making is a process followed by critical reflective response, which in turn leads to smarter making. Scaffolding needs to be in place to support the students as needed in the form of a skilled and understanding faculty and supporting staff. School has a beginning and an ending… the making of art does not. It is perpetual. A proper creative atmosphere encourages the student to know their value as a person, and as a developing artist, in a way that cultivates their desire to push themselves towards excellence.
A serious studio arts program’s curriculum must be interdisciplinary while maintaining a strong commitment to the elements and principles of art and design. The student will understand through the history of art that an academic disciplinary cross-pollination of ideas has always been present. Only now it is far easier for the separate disciplines to unify, building bridges to other departments within the college such that artists are working with scientists, historians, social workers, and engineers on projects that tackle the bigger picture with an informed participant in that picture, which intertwines the research, participation, and development of strong studio skills.
Today’s visual arts curriculum should challenge the idea of isolated individual ideas and articulate their artistic sensibilities beyond traditional fields and through the entire institution of learning. Fully engaging students in these processes occurs through three interactive “studio thinking” structures: demonstration-lecture, students-at-work, and critique (Hedland 2007). Encouraging creative expression and critical reflective response in art making permits the students to see that the process of finding their own unique voice can yield a powerful and distinctive educational experience: the result of working with tangible material, with images, with one’s hands in such a way that the inner self is revealed. This experience is unique to art education.
Present-day artists have a chance their predecessors did not, the reach of social media and the web gives them potentially unprecedented visibility of their work and themselves. Students striving towards a career in the arts may be catapulted to success or lose a job due to their irrevocable worldwide presence. The educated contemporary artist sees beyond her/himself and recognizes collaboration and fusion as a major tenet in their work. In the digital world that we live in it takes an approach to art education that is interdisciplinary and thematic, with a solid foundation in the formal elements and principles of art and design. However, 21st century art students still need a safe and supportive, yet stimulating and challenging environment to work in. Art students today are to be forerunners of a more progressive, inclusive, and hopefully more politically active society. Artists who can adapt to the new modes of communicating and fabricating will be able to speak to an ever-growing technologically savvy public.
Corita Kent, when teaching in the art department at Immaculate Heart College said, “Find a place to trust and then try trusting it for awhile” (Steward, 2008). Students of the visual arts require a stimulating and challenging environment to work in, but it must be safe and supportive. Students should not fear failure, but learn to consider the making process as experimental and incremental. Mistakes do not exist, because making is a process followed by critical reflective response, which in turn leads to smarter making. Scaffolding needs to be in place to support the students as needed in the form of a skilled and understanding faculty and supporting staff. School has a beginning and an ending… the making of art does not. It is perpetual. A proper creative atmosphere encourages the student to know their value as a person, and as a developing artist, in a way that cultivates their desire to push themselves towards excellence.
A serious studio arts program’s curriculum must be interdisciplinary while maintaining a strong commitment to the elements and principles of art and design. The student will understand through the history of art that an academic disciplinary cross-pollination of ideas has always been present. Only now it is far easier for the separate disciplines to unify, building bridges to other departments within the college such that artists are working with scientists, historians, social workers, and engineers on projects that tackle the bigger picture with an informed participant in that picture, which intertwines the research, participation, and development of strong studio skills.
Today’s visual arts curriculum should challenge the idea of isolated individual ideas and articulate their artistic sensibilities beyond traditional fields and through the entire institution of learning. Fully engaging students in these processes occurs through three interactive “studio thinking” structures: demonstration-lecture, students-at-work, and critique (Hedland 2007). Encouraging creative expression and critical reflective response in art making permits the students to see that the process of finding their own unique voice can yield a powerful and distinctive educational experience: the result of working with tangible material, with images, with one’s hands in such a way that the inner self is revealed. This experience is unique to art education.
Present-day artists have a chance their predecessors did not, the reach of social media and the web gives them potentially unprecedented visibility of their work and themselves. Students striving towards a career in the arts may be catapulted to success or lose a job due to their irrevocable worldwide presence. The educated contemporary artist sees beyond her/himself and recognizes collaboration and fusion as a major tenet in their work. In the digital world that we live in it takes an approach to art education that is interdisciplinary and thematic, with a solid foundation in the formal elements and principles of art and design. However, 21st century art students still need a safe and supportive, yet stimulating and challenging environment to work in. Art students today are to be forerunners of a more progressive, inclusive, and hopefully more politically active society. Artists who can adapt to the new modes of communicating and fabricating will be able to speak to an ever-growing technologically savvy public.
Copyright Eric Hunter © 2018