Definition of Visual Arts:
The aspect of fine arts education in regards to curriculum is visual arts. ”The visual arts are an essential form of communication, indispensable to inquiry and expression”. Visual arts include many different mediums. “This category may include the traditional fine arts such as drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture; communication and design arts such as film, television, graphics, and product design; architecture and environmental arts such as urban, interior, and landscape; folk arts; and works of art such as ceramics, fibers, jewelry as well as works in wood, paper, and other materials”.
Visual art is in fact one of the most important aspects of fine arts education. It involves physical and mental skill, both learned and utilized. Visual arts can be used in all areas of education.
Importance of Art for children
When a child creates a work of art, they are not just drawing a picture; they are also creating aspects of self-importance, individuality and engaging in self-expression. By assisting and encouraging a child’s creativity, you set the stage for endless opportunities for that child’s imagination. A healthy imagination not only creates a resourceful and productive individual, but it also builds self-esteem, which is an important tool that will be used for the rest of that child’s life.
Give freedom of expression to children
It is through these creative studies that they learn to think independently and solve unexpected problems instead of just robot like repetitive reciting of book facts. Freedom of expression lets them learn to think outside of the mainstream way of seeing things and that is how new inventions and innovative ways are developed and discovered
Importance of art in schools
Many teachers and educators may disagree about which method is best to teach our children how to read and write, or learn history, science, and even math, but there are no really serious questions about whether these subjects should be taught to all children. They are the core of our academic programs in schools today. In most schools, the other subjects, including the arts, are squeezed in, or they are not even included at all in the education of our children.
When budgets are trimmed these subjects are threatened as if they are not as important in the education of our children. But they are such an important element of life that they must be included among core academic subjects or we will risk losing the opportunity for our children to develop their creativity and express their own unique aspects of themselves.
Most of educators and people in the federal education legislation may agree that the arts are an important part of life, but this does not make them part of the essential core of education and they should be. The arts are everywhere in our lives from graphic arts to music and are essential to adding the necessary dimension and depth to our children’s thought process. The earlier that children experience arts included in their education the better off they will be. There is a direct connection to dramatic play and cognitive thinking that many studies have concluded including Howard Gardner’s project called Project Zero. The purpose of the study is to understand the process of learning at the individual level when it directly includes the arts. This study is being compiled at Harvard where Gardner is a cognitive psychologist. Project Zero was founded at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1967 by a philosopher by the name of Nelson Goodman to study and improve education in the arts because he felt that learning the arts should be studied as a serious cognitive activity, but that “zero” had been firmly established about the field which is why the project was given its name.
The importance of this study is immeasurable and the impact of its findings immense. It studies how children develop as a whole person not just in the area of traditional studies. The mission states it all. It is to “understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels.”
There are so many studies that are being conducted within this study, such as Artful Thinking. This is a program designed to explore how works of art can help students empower their thinking in ways that cover the entire curriculum, including critical thinking in math and science. Its focus is to look at art rather then create it. It is a part of Visible Thinking Network with in Project Zero. Its focus is to study and develop the thinking process of students by cultivating curiosity, open-mindedness as well as reasoning.
These are key areas in need of development at a young age in order to fully understand other subjects such as math, history and science. Thinking routines and deposits are developed in the students to create a deeper understanding of any subject that they may study throughout life. Currently the Artful Thinking project is in use by teachers in grades K-8 and has been noted of its great success in helping students develop those important critical thinking skills that are necessary in all aspects of education and life in general.
School Implementation
Visual arts are essential element of fine arts in application to other academics. It helps with perception, production, knowledge, communication, evaluation, and connection. “Visual arts education is a multifaceted creative process. It includes the development of perceptual awareness and the ability to use materials expressively. In addition, creative and critical thinking are taught and identified as: generative, imaginative, metaphorical, analytical, synthetic, and collaborative”
Visual arts include the artistic domains of dance, theater, music, and visual arts. Each of these disciplines is uniquely different, helping students grasp techniques and knowledge, which can be applied in all areas of life and education. “All four fine arts curricula do provide opportunities for growth in three common areas of learning [for students]: personal, social, cultural, and historical contexts; knowledge, skills, and techniques; and creating, expressing, perceiving, and responding”.
As presented in this artical, there are many positive effects, which stem from fine arts education. Talents and aptitude learned by the students who participate in fine arts classes become better-rounded students in comparison to those who do not. Learning techniques in the areas of dance, theater/drama, music, and visual arts have proven to be useful in all other academic curriculums. There are limited reasons why schools hold back from promoting fine arts in education and curriculum. The only reason some schools hold back from implementation of the fine arts is cost. Fine arts classes can be pricey, with the need to purchase special equipment such as VCRs, instruments, books, radios/sound systems, computers, etc. One Maryland school knows just how expensive fine arts education can be, specifically in the music department. The programs in the fine arts curriculum are some of the most expensive courses in education.
Art as I see it is a concept:
It’s a language of emotion, it’s similar to a written document in that it expresses a subject but it also goes further, to depict someone’s moods and feelings. The greatest writers could not express in words the pain expressed in Picasso’s Guernica or a photo of starving children in the Sudan. This is the purpose of art. Art is a visual memory and humans are always most emotionally responsive to visual expressions. This is why I think art should be taught differently in schools.
Art should be appreciated. There are amazingly talented artists and you can only benefit from learning from them. However, art appreciation is different to art. Art is creative: it’s about expressing your own views, not abstracting or alienating yourself from your own emotions.
It’s what the picture means to you and that’s what engages young kids. Art does not take on an objective nature when you’re 14 or 15 years old. It’s subjective and ascetic. It’s not what some man sitting in a museum thinks it’s what you feel! Have you expressed yourself? Do you get gratification from your creation?
It’s like football, yes you appreciate it and analyze it, but it’s the doing, the act of playing, which gets you going. That’s why I feel that the teaching of art should be changed from a focus on extrapolation to a focus on creation. Everyone has something to say, let him or her say it without the badgering or comparing to other artists.
Ok, you could say this won’t help them develop their skills if they aren’t compared or rated. If you give a child the drive to achieve they will develop, guidance is essential, teaching them techniques is essential but giving them a 1000 word essay to write on any personality they will get bored You can only truly appreciate if you create.
So when I got my class of disaffected year 9 they saw a new way of teaching because I didn’t have a lesson plan (out of choice) and I was using alternative methods to produce a small army of talented individuals who worked only to better themselves.
This sounds idealistic I know, but that was one of my goals. The second was to show them art wasn’t a subject they were taught: it must not be for if we allow this to happen the classes will be overrun with students with no passion and who decide to come only because it’s perceived as an easy GCSE. This would in fact be pointless and I will not allow it.
The third aim was simple: the students I had were considered troublemakers and were removed from their timetabled classes because they were not engaging in the lessons and thus misbehaving.
I felt that if I could grab their interest and interact with them positively giving guidance on an individual basis they would start enjoying art more.
I feel that because I treated them as mature students and as equals rather than as students they started appreciating school as a tool for their own use and not as some kind of prison. They quickly started turning up to every lesson rather then bunking off.
Conclusion
It is an observable fact that art makes people happier, and also that happiness is one of the most important factors in life, even if you only look at bare survival. Just for instance, only unhappy people commit suicide, so it should be clear that being happy is great if you want to live long! Not to mention that happy people are more productive, and production is basic for survival.
Overall, fine arts education is extremely essential to the education of our students. The areas of dance, theater/drama, music, and visual arts promote alternative learning and teaching methods. Students gain knowledge and experience that can be a fundamental mechanism today’s teachers use. In conclusion, fine arts are ultimately used in school curriculum to encourage creativity and motivation.