Issue TwentyEight

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20 August 2012 VADVADVADVADEA EEA EEA EEA E----BULLETINBULLETINBULLETINBULLETIN Vol. 28

VISUAL ARTS & THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM

Theres disquiet in the NSW Visual Arts education community that what may be forsaken in thenational curriculum is too precious to lose. Dr Karen Maras and Nick Phillipson from the Visual

Arts and Design Educators Association of NSW tell IEU journalist Tara de Boehmler whats atstake.

Nick, an IEU member teaching Visual Arts at St Patricks College Strathfield, says scaffolding contentusing a conceptual framework are among the keys to the NSW approach to quality visual arts curriculumand teaching.I teach only boys and they learn best when information is approached through highlighting frameworkconcepts as points of reference, Nick says.

The domain specific concepts being scaffolded amount to a framework that allows students tounderstand artworks in relationship to key agencies of the world, the audience and the artist, he says.

When focusing on learning in art, I would be very concerned if we were to lose the idea of practice.The concept of practice supports teachers work in talking about how and why artists make art. This corecontent is only very loosely referenced in the draft curriculum.

In terms of practice, we need students to understand how artworks fit into realms of an artistsconceptual ideas, influences and material practice; how artists can be masters of particular mediums isconnected to how they develop their intentions to represent ideas in artworks.

EXPLORING THE ARTWORLDEXPLORING THE ARTWORLDEXPLORING THE ARTWORLDEXPLORING THE ARTWORLD

Understanding artists practice can be closely linked to knowledge of the art world, Nick says.The art world is a very diverse domain that has influenced whole movements throughout art history.Insufficient reference is made to a students critical and historical understanding of how artists respondto and are influenced by this domain. This includes an exploration of the history that comes with westernart and eastern art concepts, the idea of the difference between craft, design and art, the multi-facets ofthe gallery system consisting of the artist, the curator, the galley director or the role of the audiencemember.

The artist as practitioner has to tap into the art world as point of influence. Students need thisgrounding and knowledge of such instances of practice in the art world to inform their own ideas of howand why an artist creates their artwork.

SEQUENTIAL LEARNINGSEQUENTIAL LEARNINGSEQUENTIAL LEARNINGSEQUENTIAL LEARNING

Karen says it is this practical, sequential learning approach that must take precedence over theaesthetic.People assume that students work with the elements and principles of design when they look atartworks. The belief is that a basic knowledge of art concerns aesthetic knowledge. Under these termsknowing about colour, line and shape is foundational knowledge.

Those elements are pertinent to some forms of art but my research on students understandings ofthings like painting in art shows they actually dont work on aesthetic terms, they work with real ideas

about artworks as products of artists practice.

Article recently published in the Independent Education Unions journal IE, Issue 2 Vol. 4http://news.ieu.asn.au/1679_2.html

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From a really young age, students work with the properties of subject matter and they name thingsthat they recognise in artworks very simply and literally. They dont orientate themselves using

aesthetic theory. Aesthetic, cultural and semiotic theories are understandings they acquire throughcultural engagement and learning with their teachers in art rooms across the country.Karen says sequential learning is vital as students acquire this understanding.

The kind of knowledge students acquire in art is logical and sequential. Foundational knowledgeconcerns explanations of what artworks do, who they are made by, how they come into existence andthe role of intention in this.

As students get older they start to realise that artworks are the products of an artists ideas andintentions. They know that artists produce artworks with a sense of purpose that engages audiencesquite diversely.

By the time they are about 12 students can speculate on how artworks can mean different things fordifferent people. They can explain that artists have intentions, representing different value systems, tomake artworks that are informing us about all sorts of different discourses whether its history, tradition,community, beauty, irony or deeply felt perceptions of things. This kind of knowledge extends beyondhow people feel in the artworld and how colour, line, shape and tone amounts to a well-formedcomposition.

BEYOND THE ROMANCEBEYOND THE ROMANCEBEYOND THE ROMANCEBEYOND THE ROMANCE

Both Karen and Nick would like to see an end to the romanticised notion of arts education being

chiefly about creative self-expression and freedom for the individual.

You cant actually turn that into curriculum, Karen says. How do you assess someones aestheticexperience? Its not viable especially when historical and contemporary art forms taught in schoolsresist the very notion of the aesthetic.

You might be looking at a fantastic new contemporary artwork, but if you are armed only with theelements and principles of design, then you will be wondering how to deal with it. Whereas, we can talkabout foundational knowledge in terms of what was the artist trying to do?, who is the audience? andwhats it about? simple questions that require much deeper knowledge in terms of the answers.

This needs to be spelt out in the national curriculum, Nick says.

It seems egalitarian to say this is just a guide and you can fill in the rest but in practice this is not howschools work. Any loose, overly flexible approach and anything that erodes the hours allowance invisual arts is problematic because many schools are run with very tight curriculum schedules,

If we dont get it right this is going to have a flow-on effect for Australias cultural capital.

Dr Karen Maras is Co-President of VADEA and Visual Arts Education Senior Lecturer atAustralian Catholic University. VADEAs Nick Phillipson is an IEU member and Visual ArtsTeacher from St Patricks College, Strathfield.

Article recently published in the Independent Education Unions journal IE, Issue 2 Vol. 4

http://news.ieu.asn.au/1679_2.html

VISUAL ARTS & THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM
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NSW BoS ONLINE SURVEY

34 DAYS LEFT for FEEDBACK

Both the NSW BoS Online Survey and the ACARA consultation for theACARA DRAFTAustralian Curriculum: The Arts will close 23rd September.

Please take the time to complete each.

VISIT THE VADEA WEBSITE TO READ VADEAsWORKING RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT

http://vadea.org.au/wordpress/index.php/2012/08/vadea-draft-response-to-acaras-proposed-arts-curriculum/

TO DOWNLOAD DRAFT AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM: THE ARTS

Click here to view the Draft Australian Curriculum: The Arts Foundation to Year 10

ACARA CONSULTATION

To Leave Feedback*

ACARA is conducting consultation on the draftAustralian Curriculum: The Arts Foundation to Year.ACARA welcomes and encourages your feedback onthese draft curriculum materials.

http://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au

Closing date: 23 September 2012

*Please note to leave feedback you will need to registerwith ACARAs website, if you are not already visit

http://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Register

Consultation on theDraft Australian Curriculum: The Arts

The Board of Studies is consulting with teachers andthe public through teacher focus group meetings inmetropolitan and regional centres and an onlinesurvey. The focus of the Board's consultation will be

on the draft Australian curriculum content. The Boardwill provide ACARA with formal NSW feedback aboutthe quality and suitability of the curriculum.

Closing date: 23 September 2012

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/

australian-curriculum/k-12-arts.html

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NSW PREMIERS AWARD FOR VISUAL ARTS

VADEA wishes to congratulate Hannah Burns, QueenwoodSchool for Girls and a VADEA Executive Officer, on her 2012Premiers Award for Visual Arts.

In describing her plans for the award Hannah states;

I intend to reposition and provide current examples of theroles of the Conceptual Framework, that is the artist,artwork, audience and artworld thereby improving theaccess Teachers have to international contemporary artknowledge. I will do this by providing published and film

resources. I am enthusiastic about demonstrating howpowerfully and robustly the conceptual framework can holdand amplify the agencies active within such exhibition sitesas the Biennales, in particular the Shanghai Biennale.

Centre, Hannah Burns receiving the award fromNSW Minister for Education and Training AdrianPiccoli andNSW Premier Barry OFarrell.
http://vadea.org.au/wordpress/index.php/2012/08/vadea-draft-response-to-acaras-proposed-arts-curriculum/http://vadea.org.au/wordpress/index.php/2012/08/vadea-draft-response-to-acaras-proposed-arts-curriculum/http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/DRAFT_Australian_Curriculum_The_Arts_Foundation_to_Year_10_July_2012.pdfhttp://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/http://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/http://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Registerhttp://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Registerhttp://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/australian-curriculum/k-12-arts.htmlhttp://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/australian-curriculum/k-12-arts.htmlhttp://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Registerhttp://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Registerhttp://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/http://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/australian-curriculum/k-12-arts.htmlhttp://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/australian-curriculum/k-12-arts.htmlhttp://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/DRAFT_Australian_Curriculum_The_Arts_Foundation_to_Year_10_July_2012.pdfhttp://vadea.org.au/wordpress/index.php/2012/08/vadea-draft-response-to-acaras-proposed-arts-curriculum/http://vadea.org.au/wordpress/index.php/2012/08/vadea-draft-response-to-acaras-proposed-arts-curriculum/


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*To join our Facebook group 2012 membersshould private messagefacebook.com/VADEANSW with their VADEAmember number.

Websitehttp://vadea.org.au


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Issue TwentyEight