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Full-Text Articles in Education
Art And Politics In John Berger’S Novel A Painter Of Our Time, Stuart Richmond
Art And Politics In John Berger’S Novel A Painter Of Our Time, Stuart Richmond
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
During the past two decades, art educators have been made more aware of the influence of ideologies in both art and education. We have seen, for example, as with Berger's Ways of Seeing (1972), and recent feminist art and scholarship, the degree to which art has been complicit in the stereotyping of women. We have been made increasingly aware of the broader social and political dimensions of art and art education and of the art of different ethnic groups. This journal is partly responsible for that shift of understanding.
Dr. Nancy R. Johnson, Karen A. Hamblen
Dr. Nancy R. Johnson, Karen A. Hamblen
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Dr. Nancy R. Johnson served as the Coordinator of the Caucus from 1983 to 1987. In that sense, she is a factual part of the history of the Caucus, and she needs to be mentioned in any discussion of how the Caucus was founded and how it developed. I believe, however, that Nancy's career and her association with the Caucus are more significant than the facts of the matter or even what she accomplished as Coordinator; rather, her career and what she valued are paradigmatic in many ways of why the Caucus was formed and why it continued to include …
Art Criticism As Ideology, Elizabeth Garber
Art Criticism As Ideology, Elizabeth Garber
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Schools have been found crucial sites of economic, political, and ideological reproduction. A non-reflective approach to art criticism that relies on visual description of the artwork or expressive response to the visual elements ensures that popular and dominant ideologies about what is art, what is good or important, and what is meaningful will prevail unquestioned. These ideologies include economic interests, as Gablik (1985) has argued; moral interests, as we have seen with, Jesse Helms' recent campaign (that might also have been fueled by a desire to reduce government spending); and the class interests of an economically powerful elite. The ideological …
The Names Quilt And The Art Educator’S Role, Doug Blandy, Karen Branen, Kristin G. Congdon, Laurie E. Hicks
The Names Quilt And The Art Educator’S Role, Doug Blandy, Karen Branen, Kristin G. Congdon, Laurie E. Hicks
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
During October of 1989, more than 9,000 individual memorial quilt panels were collected and displayed in Washington, D.C. by the NAMES Quilt Project. The panels, covering the equivalent of nine football fields, made public the grief of thousands of individuals and families whose loved ones have died of AlDS. This quilt, the NAMES Quilt, is an international effort to create a living visual memory of the devastation that the AIDS virus has inflicted on those who have died from the disease and those who have been left behind to grieve.
Collecting Women’S Art And Native American Artificates: Issues For Museum Curators, John Wilton
Collecting Women’S Art And Native American Artificates: Issues For Museum Curators, John Wilton
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Egalitarianism is quite possibly the education buzzword of the eighties. Egalitarianism is belabored in the literature of late that it seems inconceivable that any person or institution with any degree of social responsibility has not yet acted to realign the programs and policies of our biased past. Yet many major social groups still remain disenfranchised in the current American cultural scenario. This commentary addresses the predicament of two of those groups-women and Native Americans. While seemingly unrelated, both groups share a common dilemma: their voices, their opinions and their expressions are not yet respected in the realm of art and …
A Gender Exposition: Black And White Images In The Grey Chain Of Being, Jim Paul
A Gender Exposition: Black And White Images In The Grey Chain Of Being, Jim Paul
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
It is interesting how the numerical demarcation of a decade spurs one to reflective stock-taking and visionary anticipation. We know that the beginning or termination of long-term social trends do not “naturally” fall into neat groups of tens. Still, as empirically-entrenched and categorically-minded consumers we must quench our never-ending thirst to link events until we have reduced them into man”age”ableness. We are more at ease when we can name where we have been and visualize where the future will be.
The Need For Openness In Art Education, Dan Nadaner
The Need For Openness In Art Education, Dan Nadaner
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Can art education tolerate art? It looks more and more like the answer is no. Art requires imagination, play, openness and critical questioning. Art education, as an institution, tends to produce practices inconsistent with imagination, play, openness, and critical questioning. The dominant practices of the field tend to define, to reify, to certify, to enshrine.
Here’S Looking At Us Looking At Us, Amy Brook Snider
Here’S Looking At Us Looking At Us, Amy Brook Snider
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
This paper was an introduction to the mini-conference, “The Conference as Ritual: The Sacred Journey of the Art Educator,” organized by Harold Pearse, Cynthia Taylor and myself for the NAEA Convention in Los Angeles, April 1988. Art educators from Canada and the United States along with Dr. Michael Owen Jones, author and director of the Folklore and Mythology Center at UCLA (our non-participant observer) looked at our annual spring pilgrimage to various hotels in the United States from historical, psychological, philosophic, structural, and ethnographic perspectives. As the introduction to the mini-conference, my paper specifically recounts the ways that I, an …
Subjective Undercurrents: Humour And The Naea, Harold Pearse
Subjective Undercurrents: Humour And The Naea, Harold Pearse
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
The psychological climate of an NAEA conference is a highly variable one. Given the temporal and spatial restrictions, emotions tend to be intense and feelings concentrated. A good deal of what is felt is predictable – after all, conferences are call conventions. But beneath the surface veneer of officiousness, formality, and collegiality, there are subjective undercurrents. The novices experience loneliness, insecurity and feelings of inadequacy being surrounded by “experts” – people whose publications they have read or with whose names they are familiar. The experts may experience anxiety and insecurity as their egos, careers and reputations are exposed to public …
Seeking Cultural Understanding: Knowing Through The Art Of The Picturebook As One Of Five Modalities, Rogena M. Degge, Kenneth Marantz
Seeking Cultural Understanding: Knowing Through The Art Of The Picturebook As One Of Five Modalities, Rogena M. Degge, Kenneth Marantz
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Caught in the maelstrom of scholarly debate about cross-cultural values, we seek some straws for our intellectual salvation. Groups of theoreticians and practitioners, like schools of fish roiling in the seas, create waves. Some groups, like those who supported the exhibition of Primitive and Modern artifacts at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, are historical revisionists seeking new values through the alleged "influences and affinities" they attempt to demonstrate. Others more mundanely offer youngsters cardboard and paint so they may produce their own Kachina dolls in order to come to grips with the fundamental values of an …
The Interpretation Of Modern Art—What Is Possible When Dealing With The Explication Of Art, Heinrich Kupffer
The Interpretation Of Modern Art—What Is Possible When Dealing With The Explication Of Art, Heinrich Kupffer
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
The attempt to interpret modern art comes from different approaches and moves along several lines of thought. Generally speaking, together these approaches leave no doubt that a linguistic explanation is possible and legitimate. This assumption, which forms a bridge between lord and picture, is a decisive, often uncontested problem of aesthetic logic. Spectators should watch out for the traps and fallacies. They may expect that the clear statement a work of art unambiguously makes for them, the unseemingly apparent interpretation of the work, leads back to a lack of understanding of the "real" thoughts and precise statement of the artistic …
Art Educators’ Responsibility To Cultural Diversity: Or “Where Are You Goin Wid Alla My Stuff?”, Kristen G. Congdon
Art Educators’ Responsibility To Cultural Diversity: Or “Where Are You Goin Wid Alla My Stuff?”, Kristen G. Congdon
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
The responsibility of art educators to recognize and study the art and context of as many populations as possible is examined in this article. Examples of how artistic expressions have been borrowed, used in different contexts and otherwise removed from their original cultural context are given, and examples of ways that art teachers can help to recognize origins and the artistic functions of many cultures are suggested. By placing art in its context and studying it as it changes, students may begin to understand the artistic source, appreciate the importance of the creative context, and begin to see multi-cultural dimensions …
Folk Art In Art Education: Toward A General Theory Of Art As A Social Institution, James Noble Stewart
Folk Art In Art Education: Toward A General Theory Of Art As A Social Institution, James Noble Stewart
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Art may be understood by considering it as a social institution in which particular artifacts are presented as candidates for appreciation. This institution includes the domains of production, distribution, and consumption, all of which are regulated according to rules and standards relating to both art objects and behavioral roles for those people involved. In the paradigm case all participants in the institution are of the same cultural group. This is important for art educators to understand because of the diversity of cultures represented in the classroom. Because a person's greatest opportunity for meaningful involvement in the arts comes from within …
Sue Williamson: The Artist’S Struggle Toward Freedom In South Africa, Betty Laduke
Sue Williamson: The Artist’S Struggle Toward Freedom In South Africa, Betty Laduke
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
I first learned of Sue Williamson through an exhibit of her photo silk screen prints, A FEW SOUTH AFRICANS, sponsored by On the Wall Gallery in Medford, Oregon, in November, 1985. Combining visual and verbal elements, Williamson's seventeen portraits focused on black and white women and their ongoing, historical struggle against political injustice as experienced by South Africa's predominant black population. In February, 1986, I had the opportunity to interview Sue Williamson in New York City and learn how her personal development as an artist became linked with the expression of her political views, resulting in A FEW SOUTH AFRICANS. …
Thought On Social Contextualism In Art And Art Education, Tom Anderson
Thought On Social Contextualism In Art And Art Education, Tom Anderson
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Art as a manifestation and reflect ion of culture has been clearly established. Discussions of various depth on the subject are available in many general art education texts. However, the concept of art as a reflection of culture may take many forms and thus has the potential for ambiguity. Culture, as defined by the social sciences, is the complex of knowledge, beliefs, mores, customs, laws, and social institutions held by human beings as a part of society. Culture, in this sense, does not refer to what is commonly known as high culture, except as high culture is included in the …
The Nature Of Philosophical Criticism, Ann L. Sherman
The Nature Of Philosophical Criticism, Ann L. Sherman
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Nielsen challenges philosophers to examine the nature of philosophy. He criticizes them for adhering to 'philosophy for philosophy's' sake and points out the non-neutrality of philosophy. Nielsen and other radical philosophers ask: In what sense are the concepts and distinctions which philosopher address 'ordinary'? What are the societal influences on the formation of their discourse? What are the societal consequences of their discourse? Can philosophy be conceived in such a way as to perform a critical service to society? and In what ways does or should philosophy interface with other disciplines?
Why Art Education Lacks Social Relevance: A Contextual Analysis, Robert Bersson
Why Art Education Lacks Social Relevance: A Contextual Analysis, Robert Bersson
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Contemporary art education is individual - focused (i.e. self-centered) to the almost complete exclusion of larger social concerns. This is true whether the art education is child-centered, discipline-centered, Rockfeller (Coming to Our Senses) - centered, or competency-based. The primary concern, notwithstanding differences, is on individual artistic productivity and, to a lesser degree, on personal aesthetic response. The enormous untapped potential of art education - and ninety-nine percent of us will be viewers and consumers, not artists - is in the social dimension. Critical understanding of the dominant visual culture - often dehumanizing in its effect, multicultural understanding through art, and …
The Getting Of Taste: A Child’S Apprenticeship, Cathy Brooks
The Getting Of Taste: A Child’S Apprenticeship, Cathy Brooks
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Childhood art experience reflects an apprenticeship to the taste systems which a child's family and the public school subscribe to. This paper sketches my own taste experiences as a school child advancing from age six to eleven. Taste is used here to mean a person's ability to discern among alternatives. Taste judgments rely on not only aesthetic criteria but also status and economic criteria that are part of the social context in which one makes choices in objects and images. Understanding this childhood apprenticeship reveals some of the factors influencing participation in art activity and aesthetic choice. I will outline …
Carl Jung: A Formalist Critique, Harold J. Mcwhinnie
Carl Jung: A Formalist Critique, Harold J. Mcwhinnie
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
I will present a review of the basic thoughts of Carl Jung and outline his research in areas such as psychological types and the uses of symbols in art. Special attention will be placed on his discussions of Schiller's work on aesthetic play. His work on the psychological types will be related to research in art education with the Myers-Briggs tests. His work on symbols in art will be related to the new and growing interest of art education in the whole field of Creative Arts Therapy. Jung's influence on art education will be discussed within the historical and philosophical …
A Socially Relevant Art Education, Lanny Milbrandt
A Socially Relevant Art Education, Lanny Milbrandt
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
In view of the foregoing arguments for art education in a social context one might ask: do art educators bear a responsibility for the shaping of a society? If one agrees that such a responsibility is within our jurisdiction, the next question must be: what is our potential sphere of influence and activity in this realm of responsibility and how do we get on with the job? Art educators must develop a commitment to socially responsive goals and take active roles to enable those goals to be realized.
Needed: A New View Of Art And Emotions, Ann Sherman
Needed: A New View Of Art And Emotions, Ann Sherman
Journal of Social Theory in Art Education
Progressives have often neglected or purposely ignored the role of art and emotions in their analyses. Recently, however, critical theorists like Max Horkheiner and Theodore Adorno have focused on the place of the "subjective" (which usually includes art and emotions) in the economic framework of society. That such individuals have attempted to include art and emotions in their broad political/economic dimension is especially important for progressive art educators to pursue at this point in history. Art therapy programs which do not include a political/economic analysis of the images produced or the emotions expressed are becoming a significant entity within our …