Art+Advocacy

This page is dedicated to issues of ** Art Advocacy **. check out this [|art advocacy blog]

To me it is easy- **Art is the most important subject we can teach to our children**- But I am sure some of you might need a little convincing that this statement, in fact, could be true. Hey, even if you'd consider it 50% true I would be happy :-) Anyway, if you are curious about what support of this statement I can dig up than you are invited to check back often for any new quotes, links to books and/or research articles, any stories from our art studio supporting my theory I might post here during any free time I might have.

media type="youtube" key="qpunQZ4cUyI" height="364" width="445" Art Advocacy: //Let Them Be Heard.// From the 2008 NAEA National Convention, New Orleans, LA. Credits: Susan Sward, Art Teacher & Wizard, and Emily Pichette, Student, Class of 2009, West Warwick High School, West Warwick, RI.

**Why Arts Education?** Here is what the NaeA (National Art Education Association) has to say about it.

What does art education do for the individual and for society? Why do we teach art? How does art contribute to education at all levels? There are many good answers to these questions, but three stand out as crucial in today's social and economic climate. We believe that art-and therefore art education-means three things that everyone wants and needs. Beyond the qualities of creativity, self-expression, and communication, art is a type of work. This is what art has been from the beginning. This is what art is from childhood to old age. Through art, our students learn the meaning of joy of work-work done to the best of one's ability, for its own sake, for the satisfaction of a job well done. There is a desperate need in our society for a revival of the idea of good work: work for personal fulfillment; work for social recognition; work for economic development. Work is one of the noblest expressions of the human spirit, and art is the visible evidence of work carried to the highest possible level. Today we hear much about productivity and workmanship. Both of these ideals are strengthened each time we commit ourselves to the endeavor of art. We are dedicated to the idea that art is the best way for every young person to learn the value of work. Art is a language of visual images that everyone must learn to read. In art classes, we make visual images, and we study images. Increasingly, these images affect our needs, our daily behavior, our hopes, our opinions, and our ultimate ideals. That is why the individual who cannot understand or read images is incompletely educated. Complete literacy includes the ability to understand, respond to, and talk about visual images. Therefore, to carry out its total mission, art education stimulates language-spoken and written-about visual images. As art teachers we work continuously on the development of critical skills. This is our way of encouraging linguistic skills. By teaching pupils to describe, analyze, and interpret visual images, we enhance their powers of verbal expression. That is no educational frill. You cannot touch art without touching values: values about home and family, work and play, the individual and society, nature and the environment, war and peace, beauty and ugliness, violence and love. The great art of the past and the present deals with these durable human concerns. As art teachers we do not indoctrinate. But when we study the art of many lands and peoples, we expose our students to the expression of a wide range of human values and concerns. We sensitize students to the fact that values shape all human efforts, and that visual images can affect their personal value choices. All of them should be given the opportunity to see how art can express the highest aspirations of the human spirit. From that foundation we believe they will be in a better position to choose what is right and good.
 * Art Means Work **
 * Art Means Language **
 * Art Means Values **

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**10 Lessons the Arts Teach** by Elliot Eisner

Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail. and that questions can have more than one answer. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world. The arts traffic in subtleties. All art forms employ some means through which images become real. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job. and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
 * 1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.**
 * 2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution**
 * 3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.**
 * 4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving**
 * purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity.** Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
 * 5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know.** The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
 * 6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.**
 * 7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material.**
 * 8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.**
 * 9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source**
 * 10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young**
 * what adults believe is important.**

SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). //The Arts and the Creation of Mind//, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press. Available from NAEA Publications. NAEA grants reprint permission for this excerpt from Ten Lessons with proper acknowledgment of its source and NAEA.

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Interested in more? Here is a link to an article by the same author titled: [|"What can Education learn from the Arts about the Practice of Education?"]

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Not convinced yet? The NaeA has more:

__A Student with a Sense of__ ....  be perceived as beautiful, whimsical, extraordinary, unique or emotionally engaging;  compelling narrative;  disparate pieces into a meaningful whole;  compassion for others;  humor, risk-taking, curiosity, inventive thinking and games;  purpose, inspiration, fulfillment, and responsibility in making informed choices towards  higher-order thinking skills and transformation.
 * DESIGN **can create and appreciate human-made objects that go beyond function and may
 * STORY **communicates effectively with others by creating, as well as appreciating a
 * SYMPHONY **synthesizes ideas, sees the big picture, crosses boundaries, and combines
 * EMPATHY **understands another’s point of view, is able to forge relationships and feels
 * PLAY **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">creatively engages in problem-solving, benefits personally and socially from flexibility,
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">MEANING **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">pursues more significant endeavors, desires and enduring ideas, has a sense of

__A Visual ART Teacher is__.... <span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;"> present <span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;"> visual literacy <span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;"> visual culture <span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;"> and learning <span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;"> and community
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">EXPERIENCED **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">in using diverse media, processes, and technology
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">KNOWLEDGEABLE **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">about diverse cultures and art forms, past and
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">DEDICATED **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">to making the visual arts accessible and meaningful to foster
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">PREPARED **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">to nurture every student’s talents and abilities
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">ESSENTIAL **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">in captivating students in critical response to works of art and
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">SKILLED **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">at engaging students with a variety of learning styles
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">SENSITIVE **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">to the individual needs and interests of all students
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">ADEPT **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">at using a variety of assessment techniques to evaluate teaching
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">A ****<span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">REFLECTIVE **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">practitioner on current literature and best practices
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">COMMITTED **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">to ongoing professional development
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">AN ADVOCATE **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">for art education to a variety of audiences, in school
 * <span style="color: #ef3224; font-family: 'Myriad-Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Bold;">INVOLVED **<span style="color: #2f457d; font-family: 'Myriad-Roman','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Myriad-Roman;">in NAEA, state and local art education organizations