The Condition of Art Education: Critical Visual Art Education [CVAE] Club, Winter 2010

Abstract

Artist Ad Reinhardt's 1 991 prediction of the Future of Art can be interpreted as the condition of art education in 2010. He writes, next revolution will see the emancipation of the university academy of art from its market-place fantasies and its emergence as a center of consciousness and conscience (p. 62). The focus in the fields of art and art education has increasingly turned toward the social as well as aesthetic aspects of experience. Creating and responding to art in the context of people's everyday lives has become a dominant center of art practices. Art educators should recognize these shifts and work collectively to realize our strengths and responsibilities as we grapple with the complexities of art in society. Collectivity involves a process of coming to relative agreement on shared goals of the field and an understanding of the necessary components of a cohesive art education. Establishing a broad yet defined framework for the field provides a unifying structure that promotes opposing discourse and investigation without fragmentation (see Figure 1 ).In an effort to move beyond previously defined disciplinary boundaries, (i.e., seeking broader, yet related, transdisciplinary discourse), this document strives to confront art education's moment of crisis; a crisis that stems from instability in public education, economic uncertainty, the impact of No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, and technocratic forms of education. The Critical Visual Art Education (CVAE) Club argues for a collective, transdisciplinary process moving forward into a new era of art education.1 In this document, CVAE identifies declarative statements that approach the field with inclusive examination of its past, present, and future.In order to determine what has been successful and what has failed, what we wish to keep and to discard, our argument extends from specific movements and categories derived from literature that have served to define, promote, explain, and clarify new and renewed movements in the field. These include: Creative Self-Expression, Child-Centered Approach, Discipline-Based Art Education, Social Reconstructionism,Multiculturalism,Environmental/ Eco-Based Art Education, Community-Based Art Education, Narratives/Literacy, Issues-Based Art Education, Arts-Based Research, and Visual and Material Culture (Carpenter & Tavin, 201 0; Gaudelius & Speirs, 2002).From these movements, CVAE derives its own statements that symbolize holistic art education. We envision an art education that promotes an understanding of visual and material culture and its influence in shaping everyday life through transdisciplinarity, critical dialogue, cultural production, global discourse, and artistic reasoning and practice. These themes are useful in framing the following declarative statements that describe the needs of the field based on our individual perspectives as contemporary art educators.2 We wish to promote transdisciplinarity and collective processes that may engage a broader range of citizens, artists, teachers, theoreticians, and scholars. These statements reflect the growing effort of many like-minded art educators who call for broader dialogue informed by localized cultural communities and global interactions (Delacruz, Arnold, Kuo, & Parsons, 2009; Grierson, 2008). Our intent is to explore a concept of art education informed by theories and practices relative to the field of art education. These statements attempt to form an inclusive and permeable network for art education that we hope others will contribute to, perforate, and disrupt.StatementsTransdisciplinarityThe present situation in art education is one of 'crisis', e.g., instability in public education, economic uncertainty, the impact of No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, and technocratic forms of education driven by the politics of accountability (Sabol, 201 0,-Taubman, 2009). Radical new technologies are shaping how we live and interact (Roland, 2010), as well as extraordinary political and economic shifts in culture. …