Integrated Arts Weeks 4
This week in the lecture we focused on the way we view art and the way we as teachers make space for art in schools. The main example of this was room 13 in the school where they made an unused classroom into an art room/studio where it can be messy and dirt without the need to be cleaned and tidied for other subjects. The picture of this room shows the children being creative in their own way and this is thought to be because of the space they were given to express themselves. We then spoke about how you have to view an art lesson and this can tell you how much engagement is being taken onto art. McAuliffe (2007) explains how a teachers encouragement to children can help them reach their artistic potential “Through a rich curriculum and responsive teaching, children should learn more about themselves and their world through art and design as well as learning about art and design.”
I learnt and found it quite surprising that in Scotland there is no governmental restraint on Curriculum for excellence in terms of art. Whereas we discussed that in England and other countries Art is a very straight to the point and is mainly a teacher-led subject this is very different to the way art is taught in Scotland because we allow our children to have a say and lead their own learning while having the freedom of creativity I think this works better than the way it is in other countries as the children can portray their imagination thought their work and express themselves in ways that they can’t do in other subjects and would find it hard to do this in other countries where the curriculum is very laid out to follow.
The artist we look at to inspire and give us an idea of what we were going to be doing in the work shop was by a man who we learnt changed his name from his birth name to Bob and Roberta Smith to try and get noticed in the world and it worked for him. His work portrays messages through his art work. These are mainly short and snappy campaigns and messages that get his point across and try to get people who read them to think about what he is trying to say while also making him creative and fascinating to look at which will draw people in to read them. His messages vary from politics to the importance of art and what he thinks will be significant in our home lives.
I decided to work in a pair and we had a look online for some ideas and then came up with our snappy slogan that we were going to put on our poster, we decided to go with “Strive for Progress not perfection.” We felt that this could be connected to art as different people perception of a perfect piece of art is not all the same and that as long as a child is progressing at their own speed, it doesn’t matter what it looks like to one person it is only their opinion. Also, we felt it could be connected to teaching that they aren’t “perfect”. This experience and outcome can be connected to completing this activity due to the children coming up with their slogan or quote, “Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and
feelings through activities within art and design. EXA 0-05a / EXA 1-05a / EXA 2-05a.” We were then taught and told to use the printing style to create our posters, so first I wrote in bubble writing our slogan the way we wanted it to look on a piece of paper then we flipped is and my partner went over it backward onto a polystyrene plate with a pen so that it would go through the other side and create an indent for printing, then we coated our indented plates with fuchsia pink ink and flipped it onto a contrasting coloured piece of paper so we went with yellow and when you peel the paper off the ink transferred and created a bold and eye catching poster. The brighter and bolder the poster is then the more eye catching it is and the more likely people will be to stop and read it which is the whole point in creating it. I have attached several picture bellow of the different stages we went through to get our final product.
The second workshop we had today was our first dance input. In the curriculum dance sits in between the expressive arts and physical education as the children are expressing themselves while exercising. Dance can allow children to express themselves in ways the other subjects restrict them in doing so. In the workshop we started by doing one warm up exercise as this is a practice you should get into a habit of doing. Then we did an activity in groups where the rest of the group drew around me on lining paper and then there were lists of bones muscles and organs and we were to label them all on the body. Our group did really well we only got one of the bones in the arm instead of the leg. Then we did an activity that you could do with children especially if they have no dance background, we were given a sheet with several headings on it and we were to come up with one dance move to represent each heading and in the weeks to come we will use these to create a dance. This experience and outcome is directly related to the sheet of heading we used and can be completed by the children coming up with a move for each section, “I enjoy creating short dance sequences, using travel, turn, jump, gesture, pause and fall, within safe practice. EXA 1-08a.” I have done dancing since I was three, so I am excited to see what we do through this module and get ideas of how to teach children it in schools. I currently teach dance at my dance school so I know from experience the way dance can impact on a child. Cone (2011) explains clearly how this is “When children create dances using their ideas, they are empowered to explore their thoughts, feelings, and perspectives.” I have attached bellow a picture of the sheet of heading we had to follow and a picture of the labelling task bellow.
Overall, the main link between visual arts and dance is line and the expressive nature of the craft. The lines created in art are permanent and physically can be seen whereas the lines in dance are not permanent and are made physically with the persons body. In art the lines can either be hard line straight sharps lines or they can be soft like cures and lightly drawn on, just like in dance the lines can be sharp and fast for only a split second or they can be soft and fluid and last a few seconds. Either way art or dance, sharp of soft, they can both make a significant impact depending on the feel of the piece. The other link being the expressive tone can link to the line because depending on the message the person wants to tell the will set the tone of the piece of art work or the dance and this can be done by the choice of line.
References
- Cone, T. (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. [Online] Vol.9(3), pp.81-89. Available: Taylor & Francis. [Accessed: 2nd October 2018].
- Education Scotland (2004) – Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes [Accessed: 7th October 2018]
- McAuliffe, D (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11 (Edited by Sue Cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steven Herne and Diarmuid McAuliffe) London: Continuum.
