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In 1976, Arthur Efland published "The among thoughtful scholars and teachers analysis by authors or editors of whether the
School Art Style: a Functional Analysis," in as they continue to observe and analyze instructions or resulting projects are actually
which he pointed out that there were distinct the everyday practices of art education in sync with the stated standard.^
styles of art made in schools that were unlike and as they question whether art projects We cannot envision and manifest new
art made in other settings. He argued that made in schools can provide opportuni- styles of art education without examining
these school art styles did not actually create ties for students to truly explore personally and reconsidering art education curriculum
possibilities for free expression for youth, meaningful subjects while supporting clear as it is currently taught. We must be willing
but instead served the symbolic purpose of learning objectives about art content. to let go of some of the old familiar
representing to others that there were oppor- Many art educators and art education projects (and their myriad variations)
tunities for creativity and free play in other- historians have grappled with questions of in order to make room for other sorts of
wise regimented school systems. Looking at the appropriate philosophy, content, theory, projects and other kinds of art experiences.
the actual work produced based on a given scope, and sequence of visual arts educa- Sometimes it is suggested that school art
project, Efland noted the lack of meaningful tion (Efland, 1990; Eisner & Day, 2004; rooms don't need projects at all, that students
variation in the "art" that was created and Stankiewicz, 2001). What's striking is that should be given the freedom to pursue their
famously concluded, "The selfsame creative whether the dominant or proposed paradigm own creative agendas (Douglas & Jaquith,
activities may not be as free as they [initially] is Discipline-Based Art Education, creativity 2009). While this is the ideal end point of
looked" (p. 41). enhancement, visual culture, or another quality art curriculum, most students today
Drawing on characteristics identified formulation, the range of projects that are could not initially make good use of this sort
by Brent Wilson, Efland described school actually taught in most schools has remained of freedom without a great deal of individual
art as "game-like, conventional, ritualistic, strikingly similar for several decades.' When support. When students are not introduced
and rule-governed." He also observed that I scan the suggested projects in popular to a wide range of meaning making strategies
"the school art style does not seem to be project-sharing art education magazines and (and encouraged to analyze and re-purpose
a pedagogical tool for teaching children websites, I see that many of the projects are strategies they absorb from popular culture),
about art in the world beyond the school, eerily similar to those I saw in magazines as a they tend to fall back on hackneyed, kitschy
though this is its manifest function" (1976, young teacher in the 1970s, despite the many image-tnaking techniques. Because of logis-
pp. 38-39). Efland's conclusions that many dramatic changes in the styles, materials, and tical constraints of availability of materials,
of the art activities in schools do not actually methods of making meaning in contempo- space, and time as well as the number of
support creative self-expression and that rary art practices (Foster, 1983; Gude, 2004; students in an average class, it is not realistic
they are not effective in teaching students Harrison & Wood, 1992; Riemschneider & to assume that most art classes in school
about methods of artmaking outside of Grosenick, 1999; Wallis, 1984). The fact that settings can (at least initially) function
school contexts, echoes in the literature of art suggested projects in such magazines are now as open studios in which each student
education over the ensuing decades. Almost routinely paired with a national art standard re-invents his or her own methodologies of
40 years later there is lingering uneasiness seems to have done little to encourage careful makingdiscovering artistic precedents,
I
materials, and methods on a need-to-know emerging out of traditional methodologies) Propositions About What to Value
basis, supported by teacher input when is a prerequisite of making meaningful art
needed.
and What to Avoid in Choosing and
that investigates contemporary life.
Constructing Curriculum
Thus, art projects are appropriate Art made in schools will inevitably The possibilities for 21st-century art educa-
building blocks for visual art curriculum be some form of "school art," defined by
tion cannot yet be fully known, envisioned, or
because good art projects encode complex Efland as "a form of art that is produced
articulated because the field is in the process
aesthetic strategies, giving students tools in the school by children under the
to investigate and make meaning. Good of being re-imagined and revitalized. This
guidance and influence of a teacher"
art projects are not old school art-style is the contemporary research and develop-
(1976, p. 37). However, the influence of
recipes to achieve a good-looking product. ment project ofthe field of art education being
teachers can support as well as stifle indi-
Quality art projects are also not mere exer- conducted by thousands of practitioners-
vidual creativity and meaningful explo-
cises in which students manipulate form ration of content. "School art" does not art teachers, professors, community artists,
according to teacher-prescribed parameters inevitably signify educational art activities teaching artists, and museum educatorsin
without any intrinsic purpose. that are inauthentic and rule-bound. New collaboration with their students and other
school art styles can be developed that skill- community participants. New models, methods,
Good art projects are not assignments objectives, contexts, and projects will be gener-
fully and creatively utilize available mate-
to illustrate or symbolize a theme, even an ated from a wide variety of cultural positions.'
rials, tools, technologies, critical theories
important theme, in students' lives. In an
and contexts to introduce students to a My current contribution to this unfinished
article also inspired by Efland's "School
wide-range of developmentally appropriate project of reimagining visual arts education
Art Style," Tom Anderson and Melody
aesthetic practicesmeans of artmaking is based on identifying a number of familiar,
Milbrandt list three strategic goals for
based in particular methodologies of expe- commonly taught projects and exercises. I then
curriculum that authentically engages
riencing, producing, making meaning, and ask if there are other frameworks and valuing
students: "1) the use of discipline-centered
interpreting (Gude, 2008). With such an systems through which these projects can be
inquiry, 2) the construction of knowledge
education, students can now (and then later reconsidered and then redesigned to broaden
(rather than its passive acceptance), and 3)
as adults) utilize various aesthetic sensibili- and deepen the potential for students to have
teaching and learning that make connec-
ties and practices to frame and re-frame meaningful experiences and to make meaningful
tions beyond school" (1998, p. 14). Note
experience, to develop "their own unique art. This then supports students in developing
that discipline-based inquiry is first on the
idioms of investigating and making," and to more wide-ranging and nuanced understandings
list, recognizing that there is no contradic-
generate patterns of perception that enable ofthe world, conducting investigations through
tion between teaching discipline-based
them to see the world with fresh insight gaining and utilizing relevant disciplinary
knowledge and skills and making work
(Gude, 2009, p. 10). knowledge and skillsrooted in the past and
that explores meaningful connections in
students' lives. Indeed, choosing applicable including the latest contemporary developments
contemporary means of artmaking (often within various relevant disciplinary practices."*
I give
every
opportunity.'
January 2 0 1 3 / A R T EDUCATION 11
VALUE: Telling stories about students' lives
Down through Generations project. Students utilized a worksheet
with prompts such as "What jobs did your grandparents hold at various
times in their lives?" and "Describe the food, people and seating
arrangements at a typical (or holiday) family dinner." to generate
conversation with their families. The project is based on narrative art
styles of great African American modernists such as Jacob Lawrence
and Aaron Douglas. Bureau of Misdirection students in Spiral Workshop
2011 constructing images out of painted paper. Without Music by
Candace Bey.
important to recognize that we all always this content that provide more compelling creativity to come up with defenses for
"jump in" the middle of a discourse and learning experiences that are faster, more your past choices. In "Beyond Us Now:
begin by eclecting from the past to under- fun, and more likely to create knowledge Speculations Toward a Post-Art Education
stand and make from the perspectives of and skills that transfer to other contexts? World," Laurie Hicks writes, "In our post
today. What aesthetic values are being promoted modern world we have come to accept that
(and which are being left out)? What do many concepts critical to our taken-for-
Contribute to "New School" students (as well as their families and the granted ways of understanding the world are
Art Styles school community) learn about the func- no longer meaningful" (in Congdon, Hicks,
Teachers, take a fresh look at your old tions and value of art in contemporary life? Bolin, & Blandy, 2008, p. 5). Acknowledging
familiar projects. Honestly and fearlessly Is the amount of time spent on the project that such shifting understandings can
analyze the forms, functions, artistic meth- proportionate to what is being learned about produce defensiveness and resistance. Hicks
odologies, and conceptual understandings art and culture? While conveying disci- draws upon the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso's
that each project teaches. When examining plinary knowledge, does the project have the conception of "living well and dying well" to
projects, it's important to be both skep- potential to be used by students to explore suggest how we might imagine bringing new
tical of an art projects' current worth and and communicate personally significant manifestations of art education into being.
non-judgmental of your own past choices ideas and themes? She affirms that "We need to understand and
and pleasures. Perhaps this project did meet Be willing to re-imagine your teaching in value the contributions of art educators in
some of your curricular needs at one time. light of your 5, 10, 25 or more years of life the past and in the present, because it is their
Now we are asking different questions: Is this experience as a participant in unfolding, contributions that open up the possibility
as relevant to artmaking processes today as it contemporary culture! Strength of char- for us to do what we must doimagine and
once was? Are there other ways of teaching acter means NOT using your considerable enact new directions" (2008, p. 6).
January 2 0 1 3 / A R T EDUCATION 13
VALUE: Trying a wide range of
aesthetic practices
Blind Drive project. After viewing
the work of artists whose work explores
walking including Vito Acconci, Gabriel
Orozco, Yukinori Yanagi, and Richard Long,
students used walking as a methodoiogy
for reframing urban experiences. Agency of
Recollection, Spiral Workshop 2011. Photo
by Aaron Arreguin.