As I began to delve into the world of visual literacy this week, I was immediately confronted with ideas that had been introduced to me during my undergraduate years studying art education pedagogy. Issues about critically analyzing and producing images have always been central to art education, however, traditionally these images have always been those which were designated “fine art.” And while tradition has mostly prevailed in art education, there have been pushes for something new with the changing times.
In reviewing the articles and websites this week I was reminded of one of these grassroots art education movements called Visual Culture in Art Education (VCAE). I only remembered it vaguely, because it was not seen as “best practice” in my undergraduate institution. I mostly remembered the criticisms, that VCAE leveled works of fine art with things such as advertising, consumer products and comic strips. Also, it was said that the enormous breadth of VCAE made it too difficult to teach in the time allotted for the arts in schools. But as I sat there trying to recall more, I quickly was at a loss. I decided that in the spirit of this week’s topic that I would do some research into this topic.
I searched through old copies of Art Education (The Journal of the National Art Education Association) with the vague memory of an issue focusing on VCAE. Finally I found it, the November 2005 issue with the title, “Oh, No! It’s the Return of Visual Culture!” complete with image of a deformed swamp monster clutching a paintbrush. This was precisely as I remembered the art education movement, as a destructive and debilitating force against tradition. But of course, I had no foundation for this assertion, it was simply what I had been taught (and too naive to question). So I proceeded to read the publication from front to back. I learned that VCAE was truly an all-encompassing study of visual culture which includes the traditional visual arts along with popular culture images, folk art, industrial, interior, package and graphic design as well as photography, commercial illustration, entertainment media and the internet. It is truly a study of our visual world. The proponents of VCAE recognize the potency of these images and the effects on children growing up in the midst of these influences. With the fine arts as such a small portion of the visual world, they assert, why is arts education so focused on these antiquated traditions of high art?
I was surprised at how much seemed so relevant to my thinking today. I have always felt that students seemed ill-equipped to analyze the bombardment of visual stimuli around them. With advertising, television and the internet as a constant, unrelenting force in everyone’s life it is essential that we know how to filter this information and critique it. And yet in art education we tend to focus only on the high arts (mainly painting, drawing and sculpture). While I love these images and recognize their importance, I also wonder if it is enough to study these visual images and call it a quality arts education.
It is actually one of the many reasons why I am moving from the realm of art education to librarianship. It’s not that I now think the arts to be irrelevant, but the expectations put upon art teacher from staff, parents and administration was beginning to wane on me. It seemed to me that the arts in schools are a frill, an extra that could easily be replaced or eliminated at a moments notice. I knew that parents and administration expect conventionally beautiful (or even “cute”) artwork to grace the walls of the school and see that as a symbol of a quality arts program. And being a non-tenured teacher there is a lot of pressure to live up to that standard. However in reading these articles that dissected this Visual Culture art movement, I became once again inspired. These were the ideas that brought me to art education in the first place. The concept that children could learn to analyze a visual image and speak intelligently about its meaning, whether it be a painting by Da Vinci or an advertisement by McDonald’s. The idea that art isn’t limited to museums or the elite, that you can surround yourself with culture. I cannot wait to infuse my teaching with these new ideas and to bring visual literacy into my teaching. Perhaps I am not a complete convert to VCAE, but I am certainly glad that I revisited its teachings. And in addition, it also makes me happy to think that the role of the school librarian is no longer limited to the gatekeeper of books. The title of School Library Media Specialist allows me to introduce and explore the various forms of media to my young students, including visual media. And that is truly an exciting prospect.
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Hey, this is really interesting. In my experience, art classes were very focused on making art (at the elementary level) and, as you say, looking at famous pictures and memorizing names of artists (in middle school and high school). It never even occurred to me that art classes could (or should) teach some of these media/visual literacy skills, but you're right, it seems like a natural role for art teachers to take on - makes art classes more relevant to kids, parents, and administrators. Do you have any thoughts about how teaching visual literacy skills might fit into existing curricula for art classes? Is it something you'd start at the elementary level, or something you would start talking about as kids got older?
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a topic that I would like to explore perhaps later this year or next year with my elementary classes. I don’t see why there is any reason to postpone teaching these skills until middle school or high school. In fact, I find that the younger the student, the more willingly and honestly students will talk about artwork. They truly have no inhibitions and say what they think. And often they have very profound things to say! I think that I would incorporate these topics slowly into the curriculum as my students are somewhat used to a different style of art class (typically, a short introduction to an artist and technique and then creation of an artistic product). Perhaps it could begin by a discussion on what art is to them. Once broken out of the typical assumption that art is only painting, drawing and sculpture, I believe we could delve into the world of web design, advertisements, architecture etc. I think that lessons on “reading” famous works of art to begin could also be helpful. Once students find some success with this and gain some vocabulary to describe what they are seeing, I think it would be an easy transition to dissecting web pages, photographs and advertisements for meaning. In my mind, I feel like students would embrace learning more about their world. They are surrounded by this new media and are completely enraptured with it. I think that so much of school is learning about the past that they get excited when they get more information about things that are relevant to their own life. For one of my projects this semester, I would like to create a lesson based on visual literacy and see if I could use it for one of my classes. Once complete, I would be glad to share the results to see if it was a success.
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