National Art Education Association

Coaxial Connections: Art Education in CanadaAuthor(s): James V. GraySource: Art Education, Vol. 37, No. 5, Art Education in Canada (Sep., 1984), pp. 6-8Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3216157 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 19:38

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

National Art Education Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ArtEducation.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.56 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:38:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Canadian Art Education and Art Curricula

Coaxial Connections: Art

Education in Canada James V. Gray

W hhat you find in United States art education you also find in Canada, give or take

a few million dollars, thousands of art teachers, and hundreds of programs. What you cannot find in Canada are contributions of federal monies to public school art education, large groups of specialist art teachers, or an equivalent to fifty state art curriculum and instruction development agencies. In Canada, education is totally a pro- vincial affair. The number of specialist art teachers is relatively small; there are only ten major curriculum and instruc- tion departments or ministries to assist school districts in the whole country.

In spite of these disparities and some other fundamental differences, Cana- dian art teachers manage to maintain several productive coaxial connections that provide a steady flow of art educa- tion ideas and images. These connec- tions run north and south, east and west, and span the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Moreover, they often intersect. The value of any coaxial connection lies in its capacity to carry many and varied transmissions simultaneously; it provides the opportunity to learn something about common concerns and underlying differences.

To understand how and why Canada and the U.S. share many art education ideas, consider some of the early transmissions from the eastern portion of this continent. For example, when Walter Smith was brought to the U.S. in 1872, to promote training of "hand and eye" for vocational skills, only a few cities in Canada had given atten- tion to art or drawing in the school cur- riculum. In Toronto there are stirrings about developing a school of art, and by 1873 the Ontario Art Society had been formed (Saunders, 1954). The flow of ideas in art came from Europe while most drawing material for schools flowed from the U.S. as Walter Smith's Drawing Books. Thereafter, ideas from elsewhere were modified

and adapted by Canadians according to their regional interests.

A frontier spirit was evident in both Canada and the U.S. as turn of the century railways carried settlers west across the continent. Little time and energy was devoted to anything except basic needs: shelter, food, productive work, and rudimentary schooling. Travelling west, one could criss-cross the border between the two countries and not detect significant differences in life-styles or values in the many rural communities spreading north and south of railway lines and waterways. But relatively cosmopolitan cities such as Vancouver were building substantial brick elementary schools and absorb- ing education resources from the United Kingdom and from the U.S.; these included the Prang Textbooks of Art Education. Thus three major coax- ial connections were well in place by the advent of the first world war.

The effects of W.W.I, unsettled world politics, impact of the great depression, and dust-bowl hardships were experienced negatively on both sides of the border. Some of the positive transoceanic connections of

the twenties and thirties were the in- fluence of Canadian artist-teachers who had been trained in Scotland or England. Moreover, by 1934, Cana- dian art educators and specialist art teachers were made aware of some dominant British and international ideas expressed by R.R. Tomlinson. His books represented a direction toward "cultivation of the eye ... (and) . . . visual training" (Tomlinson, 1934, p. 7). Perhaps a more dynamic influence was provided by one of Tomlinson's colleagues, Marion Richardson who, in 1934, received an invitation from the Carnegie Trust to speak to the University Summer Schools of Canada (Richardson, 1948). Richardson's contributions represent the intersection of several coaxial con- nections transmitting ideas and values among art educators in the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain.

A north-south connection existed during this period, associated with the writings of John Dewey and the tenets and teachings of "Progressive Educa- tion" (Eisner, 1972). Between-the- wars, art was becoming more than just drawing in the curricula of North American schools, though agreement as to what might constitute art educa- tion or art teaching was lacking. In elementary schools, art was sometimes integrated with other subjects to such an extent that the form and impact of art was lost though art was accounted for in teachers' time allotments. There was confusion in secondary schools; what could be inferred from course names such as art, fine arts, arts and crafts, manual arts, or industrial arts? Art in schools might be conceived to have intrinsic value, or it might be of- fered for its instrumental value to serve other practical purposes. During this period, studies were needed that would help art teachers clarify and justify their beliefs and practices and that would provide evidence of the value and impact of art in life. Unfortunate- ly, the finding of two such studies was

Photo on preceding page: Canada's landscape is vast and varied. This view is from Nova Scotia. Photo courtesy of the Canadian Government Office of Tourism.

I -IT -

I~II ~~

l I - C~Y ~1IL

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.56 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:38:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

4 a - a

Art education in Canada encompasses people from a wide variety of cultures. Here a group of Stik Indians smoke salmon along the Yukon River near Carmacks, Yukon. Photo courtesy of the Canadian Government Office of Tourism.

obscured by the breakdown of interna- tional security and the onset of W.W. II.

The Owatonna Project, wherein practical and aesthetic aspects of life were integrated as the study of art, highlighted the pervasiveness and relevance of art in life and demon- strated that the study of art could be a substantive element in school cur- riculum (Eisner, 1972). The other significant project, "The Eight Year Study" (Plummer, 1969), could have been useful for Canadians and their U.S. counterparts in either rural or ur- ban districts to counter arguments that studying art in high schools would weaken students' prospects for being academically successful in college.

Although W.W. II was responsible for many personal and social discon- tinuities, it also created connections that proved beneficial in Canada and the U.S. Canadians and U.S. citizens traveled widely, and often dangerous- ly, as members of their armed forces. They saw social and cultural contrasts and commonalities, varied city sizes and population densities, the bright- ness and irrepressibility of children, and the enduring presence of national

art forms. After the war, the three coaxial con-

nections in art education increasingly intersected and branched as a conse- quence of four conditions. First, the spirit of the times was optimistic in North America; and second, a popula- tion of teacher-trainees with unusual background experience as war veterans was about to enter classrooms. Third, a baby-boom required that conven- tional educational practices and view- points be reexamined to accommodate unusual demands. Fourth, new theoretical viewpoints were being ad- vanced about the nature of art and education. By 1950, the three coaxial connections and four new conditions helped to develop art education in North American into a form of in- tegrated circuit. For example, art pro- grams were being directed toward pro- moting personal vision and new forms of visual expression. The postwar wave of new teachers included many who upgraded their pre-war qualifications and who were able to commence a thorough and sustained study of art and teaching.

To cope with these demands, fresh insights and outlooks were needed.

Sources of leadership were sought that would take art teachers in new direc- tions. New bibliographies listed periodicals such as SchoolArts, Junior Arts and Activities, and The Studio and the works of art educators such as Cole, D'Amico, Gaitskell, Kainz and Riley, Lowenfeld, Read, Viola, and Winslow. Some of these writers Eisner (1972) later identified as "the Heroes" of the time (p. 56).

As a response to the need, the U.S. textbook industry increased its pro- duction of art education literature, achieving a mass of readings that made it difficult to make a representative selection. Fortunately, Dobbs pub- lished a well conceived review of signif- icant North American writings, from 1950-1974, in a Canadian journal (Dobbs, 1974). Much of this writing was used by Canadians who taught art in public schools or who worked as teachers of teachers. This north-south flow of ideas seems to have been a function of economics as well as com- patible cultural outlook.

Developments of mutual under- standing have tightened the art educa- tion relationships between our two countries. Significant elements of coaxial connections are transmitted by Canadians to U.S. teachers who en- gage in disciplined inquiry with their foreign students, and reciprocally, by U.S. teachers who examine and trans- mit the concepts and values fundamen- tal to American art education. A similar connection is achieved when U.S. teachers work in Canadian schools, especially in teacher-training institutions (Gray, 1979). The U.S. teacher, however, is at a slight disad- vantage when trying to deal with Cana- dian phenomena; the U.S. educator has a considerable amount of research to draw upon but very little informa- tion about what might be significantly Canadian. The Canadian, on the other hand, has easy access to U.S. studies and data sources and a better knowl- edge of the scarce and obscure Cana- dian data collections that do exist.

Part of that imbalance stems from communication problems that are be- ing reduced through improving east- west coaxial connections in Canada. The major conduit for the flow of art education concerns and ideas is the Canadian Society for Education Through Art (CSEA). As a national organization, it carries many messages

Art Education September 1984 7

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.56 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:38:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Canadian Art Education and Art Curricula ,~~ ~ ~~~~~~ . III

associated with art in education. The prime mover in Canadian art education over the past 40 years has been C.C. Gaitskell, one of the founders of the CSEA. After meeting Sir Herbert Read, Gaitskell returned to Canada convinced that the time was ripe for the foundation of a society which could use the dictum of education through art to unite art educators across Canada. His view was reinforced by his experiences as conferences in art education held in the United States, where he kept meeting fellow Cana- dians. Why, he reasoned, should we travel to another country to exchange ideas, when it could be done in Canada? (MacGregor, 1979, p.2).

Ever since 1955, a national assembly has been convened with due regard to regional needs and interests. At the 1971 Vancouver conference, the Research monograph was initiated, now published annually as the Cana- dian Review of Art Education Research. The other C.S.E.A. publica- tion that assists in keeping open all coaxial connections is the C.S.E.A. Annual Journal, which includes writings by U.S. and Canadian art teachers/educators. C.S.E.A. assemblies attempt to create a con- fluence or ideas that are French Cana- dian, Anglo-Canadian, British, and "American." When they are successful, these assemblies help to inform Cana- dian art educators of current transcon- tinental and international practices.

There exist, however, strong regional differences in Canada that ap- pear to favour north-south rather than east-west connections. Maritimers and eastern Canadians take full advantage of educational facilities, cultural events, and professional leadership readily and economically accessible to them in the eastern and upper mid- western parts of the U.S. Prairie pro- vince Canadians, like their counter- parts in the plains states, select eastern or western sources according to given needs and events that appear attrac- tive. Western Canadians have devel- oped fairly direct and well-used con- nections with western U.S. art educators and programs. yet, there is a sense of unity among Canadians, albeit in a thinly stretched form, across the country, largely through the work of the C.S.E.A.

So far the picture presented is one which deals with U.S. and Canadian

similarities and which leads to a con- clusion that in spite of some detectable speech mannerisms, U.S. and Canadian art teachers would be almost indis- tinguishable from one another when meeting at either C.S.E.A. or N.A.E.A. conferences. What charac- terizes our present, possibly abiding, differences are qualities of scale, visibility, and complexity.

Canada in law and practice is two nations living as one in a manner that is sometimes awkward for its citizens and surprising to its visitors. Cultural and language dualities exist; there is an east-west or old-new frame of refer- ence that distracts Canadians from the concerns of middle Canada and the far north. Parts of Canada still have remote, rural schools that seem either ill-served or unaffected by art educa- tion ideas and practices emanating from metropolitan areas such as Toronto, New York, San Francisco, or Vancouver. In terms of the people af- fected, the scale of the problem in Canada may be small, but the size of the country is great.

Not so readily visible is the dual nature of provincial school support systems. In some provinces, Catholic and non-denominational schools are receiving financial support to operate independently under jurisdiction of a provincial Ministry. In other pro- vinces, independent schools attract in- creasing numbers of pupils whose parents are dissatisfied with public schools. Canadian taxpayers are reac- ting to school costs as did New York and California taxpayers a few years ago. At the same time, financial sup- port from provincial bodies is being curtailed, and the term retrenchment is heard constantly. Unfortunately, only small scale attempts are being made to alter art curriculum and instruction practices in response to this newly emerging Canadian reality.

The most important agent of art education ideas is the teacher, yet there is no national accrediting agency in Canada to establish minimum prepara- tion guidelines; teacher training is strictly a provincial affair. In British Columbia, a secondary art specialist must have completed a minimum of five years of university education with two years devoted solely to art. Several other provinces certify teachers from grades 1 to 12 based on only one to two years of post high school study. Until

several years ago, no teacher prepara- tion programs were available in the Yukon Territory.

On a small scale, changes in the Yukon represent the evolutionary pro- cess of Canadian art education as developing according to the quality of coaxial connections that transmit significant variations of the form and content of art and education. The scale of Canadian art education may seem small and its visibility partially obscured by the shadows of larger friends, but it contains challenges equal to those faced by art teachers in larger, more complex, and larger established situations. U

James V. Gray is Professor, Visual and Performing Arts in Education, Univer- sity of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.

References

Dobbs, S. (1974). Research and reason: recent literature and ideas in American art education. Curriculum Theory Network, 4 (2 & 3) 169-191.

Eisner, W. (1972). Educating artistic vi- sion. New York: Macmillan.

Gaitskell, D., Hurwitz, A., & Day, M. (1982). Children and their art. 4th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Gray, J. (1979). Moss on the tree: Cana- dian graduate study in art education. Review of Research in Visual Arts Educa- tion, 10, 10-20.

MacGregor, N. (1979). A history of the Canadian society for education through art: 1951-1975. Lexington, MA: Ginn Custom Publishing Program.

Plummer, G.S. (1969). Unclaimed legacy: the eight year study. Art Education, 22 (5), 4-6.

Richardson, M. (1948). Art and the child. London: University of London Press.

Rogers, A.W. (1983). The beautiful in form and colour: Art education curriculum in British Columbia between the wars. Un- published master's thesis, the University of British Columbia.

Saunders, R.J. (1954). The parallel development of art education in Canada and the United States, with emphasis on the history of art education in Canada. Un- published master's thesis, The Pennsylvania State University.

Tomlinson, R.R. (Ed., C.G. Holm) 1934). Picture making by children. Lon- don: The Studio Ltd.

Art Education September 1984 8

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.56 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:38:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions