Almost any object we see today is a creation of another person; a product of their self discovery, and attempt to relay a message to their community or society as a whole. It is the study and practice of art that provides students with these chances of self discovery and talents of communicating emotions, learning history, and observing our world and interpreting its visual symbols. I help students discover these skills by designing my curriculum with focus on two approaches to art education; the expressionist approach, teaching students how to communicate their ideas and thoughts through the creation of art, and the visual culture approach by teaching students how to read the images of our 21st century world (Seigsmund, 1998).
Expression, the communication of ideas, is an important element of my curriculum because it provides students with a time of self discovery and practice of communication; by portraying their thoughts, a student is placing a piece of themselves out into the world to become immersed in society. Expressiveness through art is also psychologically therapeutic; “The child who uses creative activity as an emotional outlet will gain freedom and flexibility as a result of the release of unnecessary tensions” (Lowenfeld, 1947, p.7).
I also believe the study of art teaches students how to interact with their world and understand the images and symbols on which our world so heavily relies. From the charts and tables we see in academic classrooms, to the television ads and billboard signs we see every day, we are forced to see images and attempt to understand their meanings. We are becoming image literate, which Richard Seigesmund argues, allows for deeper knowledge of our surrounding world. Without visual literacy, students would have difficulty making sense of a diagram in a science lab, or a chart in math class. It is through the study of visual arts, and my combination of expression and visual culture art education that students can attain the tools and knowledge not only to understand this visual culture, but also to be able to communicate their ideas and beliefs to the world, therefore becoming part of this visual culture.
Resources
Lowenfeld, V. (1947). Creative and mental growth. New York: Macmillan
Siegesmund, Richard. (1998, Spring). Why do we teach art today? Conceptions of art education and their justification. Studies in Art Education, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp 197-214