CONSIDER: What does Arts Education mean to you now? How has it changed from the beginning of this semester?
What is Art Engagement?
People’s understanding and appreciation of visual art, building relevancy and connection, through the lens of identity. This encompasses the consideration of identity through culture, gender and belief systems.
Why art critique should be part of the curriculum?
A critique is an oral or written discussion strategy used to analyze, describe, and interpret works of art. Critiques help students hone their persuasive oral and writing, information-gathering, justification skills. Critiques also provide a depth of observation, peers valuing peer opinions, and foster collaboration and community. Always provide direction and guidance with the critique to ensure that students stay on task and address the purpose and objectives of the lesson.
Feldman’s 4 steps to Art Criticism
Joyce Payne suggests when critiquing work to describe the work without using value words such as “good” or “bad”:
- What is the written description on the label or in the program about the work?
- What is the title and who is (are) the artist(s)?
- When and where was the work created?
- Describe the elements of the work (i.e., line movement, light, space).
- Describe the technical qualities of the work (i.e., tools, materials, instruments).
- Describe the subject matter. What is it all about? Are there recognizable images?
- Describe how the work is organized as a complete composition:
- How is the work constructed or planned (i.e., acts, movements, lines)?
- Identify some of the similarities throughout the work (i.e., repetition of lines, two songs in each act).
- Identify some of the points of emphasis in the work (i.e., specific scene, figure, movement).
- If the work has subjects or characters, what are the relationships between or among them?
- Describe how the work makes you think or feel:
- Describe the expressive qualities you find in the work. What expressive language would you use to describe the qualities (i.e., tragic, ugly, funny)?
- Does the work remind you of other things you have experienced (i.e., analogy or metaphor)?
- How does the work relate to other ideas or events in the world and/or in your other studies?
- Present your opinion of the work’s success or failure:
- What qualities of the work make you feel it is a success or failure?
- Compare it with similar works that you think are good or bad.
- What criteria can you list to help others judge this work?
- How original is the work? Why do you feel this work is original or not original?
Visual Strategy Techniques 2020 (Remai)
Art Critique Ideas for classroom here
How do we build Art Appreciation into our students daily lives?
What does it mean to teach and learn art for life’s sake, can one assume the premise that are and visual culture are imbued with and communicate personal and social meaning? Art education for life is about building relationships and about the way we understand ourselves, others and our small blue planet. Art should be engage in, not isolated from the everyday concerns of society. In every culture around the world throughout human history, art has had very specific functions beyond pure decoration, utility or simply existing for it’s own sake. Art’s primary function has been to tell and capture some part of our stories, to help us know who we are and what we believe. The arts are our purest form of communication, and our roles as arts education leaders are to help our students understand something intrinsic about themselves and others, we provide the tools that are essential for their personal growth, social progress and in developing a sense of the global community both past and present. Equipping our students with the language, and strategies they will need to make sense of their lived experiences, their social and personal lives will become a true expression of authenticity and both a window and mirror to all that remains possible.
A quick video to explain Art Appreciation.
To Learn more about Art Appreciation one needs to know more about Art History, here’s your starting point!
Comprehensive List of Art Movements
10 Free Courses to help you Understand and Appreciate Art
Creativity and Academics: The Power of an Arts Education
CONSIDER: How has your knowledge and this class experience prepared you for your future classrooms? Do you feel confident in yourself to take chances, get messy and make mistakes?
An excellent article worth your time: Beyond this Point There May be Dragons
Jaehen Bae writes:
” art methods courses for future art teachers should be designed for specific learning activities that lead pre-service art teachers to develop approaches to art lesson planning that specify important ideas about art that they want to teach, how to effectively teach in ways that are engaging to contemporary students, and how to transfer what is learn in methods courses to actual classrooms (Fogarty et al.,1992). Through more self-aware experiences with the aspects of teaching identified in this study, pre-service art teachers may hone both their knowledge about art and their teaching strategies. Importantly, pre-service art teachers would benefit from methods courses that promote greater awareness of and strategies for incorporating art history, art value systems, and contemporary issues relevant to the visual arts. Incorporating such considerations into pre-service instruction, instead of focusing so predominantly on studio skills and classroom control, would provide opportunities for these future teachers to more effectively engage contemporary theories and practices in arts education.”
See full article here: Elements of Concern in Pre-Service Art Teaching