Jenna Conrad

ART 133, Amber Ward

Unit Paper 2
Power is such an essential part to the way that things are run, whether society believes and
sees it or not. This is a big idea that Hurwitz & Day, Barrett, and Gude all focus on in their seperate
pieces of work, but they all apply it to a differing subject. The 21st century relation to power and art
among children is something that is directed at the young age group in their everyday lives. As a
commonality and a tactic that the 21st century society is familiar with, visual culture plays a large role
in the power that it has upon the viewers. This visual culture effects everyone, "nearly all of these
sources of visual culture embody an agenda or purpose that is intended to entertain or influence
viewers" (Hurwitz & Day, 2007, p. 282). This shows that everything that is visual is going to be
directed toward a specific area of society, either being a partiular age, gender, etc. This aspect of art is
altering the way that children and learning and teachers are teaching. Children are becoming more
aware of the cultures that are surrounding them, meaning teachers are having "committment to teaching
students to apply formal principles to all aspects of the 'fine arts' as well as the objects and
environments of everyday life" (Gude, 2004, p. 6).
Incorporating the big idea of power into a third grade class would be important in order to
show them the important jobs it does. Personally, I think that this would work best if I had them make
collages out of things they thought to have power over them. This would be an art project, but teach
them about their own lives and culture, essentially being apart of social studies. I would have child
appropriate magazines, they would bring their own pictures if they wanted, and I would supply them
with safe and useful materials. I would give them precise directions of what we want to portray, but I
would want them to explore and show their own thoughts, so I'm not too sure that I would direct them
toward a specific direction. This would give me and chance to see where their thinking skills are and
how they view their surroundings.

References
Day, M. & Hurwitz, A. (2007). Children and Their Art; Methods for the Elementary
Belmont, CA.

School.

Gude, O. (2004). Postmodern Principles: In Search of a 21st Art Education. University of

at Chicago.

Illinois