I love the idea of Big Ideas. I just wish I had been introduced to them a long time ago. They make it so easy and satisfying to create something with meaning for both the maker and the viewer. They stimulate creative thinking and doing. Plus, the possibilities for creativity are endless and can work for any grade level. They can also be used to meet any national or state standards.
The big idea behind my art program would be Interaction. I liked what Eisner said about how everything interacts. "The concept of interaction is as fundamental in education as it is in all human states of affairs...interaction is a condition of experience." (p, 23) Everything interacts...if you are paying attention. I want students to notice what is going on, to pay attention to the interactions. I also want to introduce them to numerous examples of art and artists for inspiration throughout their time in my classes. That will be great for them and for me, I'll get to do a lot of fun research. The practice of making connections between different classes and projects for the students is appealing. I want to help share the world with my students, from Mesopotamian social studies to dodecahedron geometries. Art and artists can connect to any subject.
For years, I was never taught how to make my art meaningful, just asked what things meant after I had made them. For so long, that is how art has been taught. As Erikson said, some people don't understand art because "the knowledge, skills and attitudes we expect them to have were never taught to them." (pg. 26) I always felt so bogus when I had to explain what a piece "meant". I am excited about learning how to teach students in a way that won't make them feel fraudulent or confused, just creative and exploratory.
I also want the students to treat their work as works of art. I love school hallways with student artwork displayed. Who doesn't love seeing all of that work on the walls. I want the students to see that the things they make have value and meaning, beyond being someone's favorite color or animal.
On a personal note, I recently volunteered to help make decorations for the Christmas/Holiday music program at my children's school There never are any decorations. It has always bothered me, but I never had the confidence to step up and do something about it. So I talked to the music teacher and the librarian/after-school-program coordinator and they said okay. I can use the after-school kids as elf labor and I have creative control over what we make, as long as it's basically free. The two teachers seemed terrified by the idea of being "artistic", which cracked me up because I would be terrified of anything to do with a music program or forty kids playing dodgeball in the cafeteria. I would appreciate any advice and I will blog about this project again.
I am so glad that you can relate to the big idea as an artist and as a teacher. When you wrote that you felt "bogus" having to explain, after the fact, what the work meant it dawned on me that the teacher must have known that the work should have meaning but apparently never dealt with it overtly but still expected students to comply without instruction about how to do that.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you say to your parents on back to school night about the importance of art in the curriculum? How would you advocate for the arts?
I really like how you chose Interaction as your big idea. Whenever I’m working on an art project, I’m always interested in how the objects interact with each other and how the space between those objects interacts. For me, it’s one of the most important ideas behind making a strong work of art. But as you noted, this applies to more than compositional interactions, interactions of ideas are also very important.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it’s a good idea to stress; it’ll get them to work out their creativity muscles.