Coming to Terms with Visuality in the Content of Art Education

Abstract

This article explores how content in art and art practice are generated in the form of curriculum narratives in art education, in particular how the concept of the visual has emerged as a central narrative in the field. The post digital concept of visual education collects together such a diversity of subjects in the school curriculum including—Visual Arts, Design and Technology, English, Media and Communications, the Crafts, Theatrical Production, the spectacle of Dance, and Cultural Studies; a corresponding diversity of content, for example, canonical images from the history of art, design, the moving image, images from the material and built environment, as well as commerce, scientific, technical, popular and multicultural imagery. As a result the tag of “visual” in visual arts and visual arts education has become ‘the elephant in the room’ when applied as a defining concept for the field. The paper draws upon the narrative history from two examples influential in generating curriculum content relating to visuality in art education.