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Making the artists of the future, one learning experience at a time. 

Where's The Art?

11/23/2014

3 Comments

 
As art teachers we claim to love creativity. We talk of it's virtues and the importance of instilling it in our children. We hold examples of the truly great artists of the ages up as paragons of genius for students to aspire to. 

Then we plan the steps in advance. We cut out paper shapes  and mix the perfect color in little cups. We even determine the subject matter, taking works of art that represent the essence of a people or deep personal expression and turn them into flimsy replicas removed from their cultural or expressive meaning. 
 
Worse, we call what students are doing "creative" when "following the steps" would be a more apt description. 

Do art teachers like the idea of art better than it's actual creation?
Picture
The great artists of history, the ones we really remember, didn't follow steps - they broke the mold, and in doing so made art that captures the human experience. The problem is that being a genius is hard and messy and involves risk taking. That's hard to fit in a 45 minute lesson.

But we have to try.
We owe it to our kids to give them the chance to innovate and with it room to fail, to make a mess, to start over. Teaching creativity is so much more than learning skills, it's learning resilience and developing vision. To do this we have to put the art back in art education and facilitate work in the studio instead of planning projects. 
3 Comments
Clyde Gaw link
11/23/2014 10:30:51 am

Great question Melissa! An even better solution to the problem! My problem, and I try to ignore her is that Charlotte Danielson keeps sticking her nose in my business!

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Katie Morris link
11/23/2014 11:23:53 am

Yes, yes, YES!!!

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Bryan link
11/25/2014 03:06:05 pm

Absolutely! We also need support and curricula from higher ed teacher training programs. George Szekely from University of Kentucky is doing that. Also, this is the exact focus of the Center for Creative Art Teaching- to help teachers and educators put into practice what they know is best for students. We can incorporate local and state goals to provide the evidence you need to support your practice.

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    Mrs. Purtee

    I'm interested in creating a student student centered space  for my high school students through choice and abundant opportunity for self expression. I'm also a writer for SchoolArts co-author of  The Open Art Room.

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