Art criticism with youngsters makes me a bit nervous. I’m always afraid that their “critiquing brain” will get ahead of their “art-making brain” and thus they will only have critical things to say about their work before it even gets off the ground. That being said, I learned a few things from this chapter. It was nice to have the author come right out and say that you shouldn’t try and do a college-art class critique with elementary students. I found the sequential breakdown of questions to ask kids (on pages 236-237) quite helpful. Some of our docents (from a science background) at the museum really hate doing the tour of the art gallery and I think I might photocopy those pages to give them a sense of how to ask the kids questions.
The aesthetic questions (pages 241-243) are also somewhat helpful. All of this is just such a shift from the way art was talked about for my last three years at CalArts . I’m not quite comfortable with either way. I know that that is not very articulate. I just became pretty disillusioned with the art-world speak, I found it to be over-analyzed, navel-gazing and all together a bunch of hooey and I really don’t want that to happen to kids. I don’t want them to think that they are stupid or unartistic because they “don’t get it”. I think all of these questions are great- just as long as they don’t subtract too much from the limited art-making time that the kids get.
I think all this will become clearer once I actually start observing elementary art classes.
Oh- and one more thing- I like the idea of the "observing game" mentioned on page 236. Has anyone ever done this before?
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Chapters 20-21
Since the beginning of this class I have been interested to hear more about the idea of how to lead a critique for elementary students. And while this chapter is on teaching art appreciation- it still brings up the same issues of analyzing a work of art. So many students have low confidence in their artistic abilities anyway, that I am nervous about teaching them to scrutinize works of art for fear that they will scrutinize themselves out of making art entirely because their head has advanced more than their hands. Several comments in this chapter have helped me relax about this issue and become less fearful.
Firstly, I like the quote from Maria Montessori “do not give more to the mind than to the hand”. I also found the breakdown of suggestions for how to lead art discussions quite helpful. The little bit I have read from the “Talking with children about art” book has been helpful along the same lines. I recently checked out a book for my illustrator project that is called “tell me a picture”. Also quite helpful to break down into little steps how to talk to children about art.
In my job at the Museum, I have a great deal of fun talking with kids about science, but when I take them up to the art gallery it becomes more difficult for me. It just feels so vague, and I often I get the feeling the kids make up answers that they think I will like rather than putting much thought into it. I have been trying to think how to re-phrase my questions better. I think I can use some of these guidelines to practice.
On the topic of art games, does anyone know of any art related computer games? Something like where in the world is Carmen san Diego only about art? That’s a real market nich I would think. I’d buy it for my kids.
I liked the specificity of the art history discussions in chapter 21. I am teaching a life drawing class for high school students down in California this summer and I will make use of some of the suggested artists to show work from.
Firstly, I like the quote from Maria Montessori “do not give more to the mind than to the hand”. I also found the breakdown of suggestions for how to lead art discussions quite helpful. The little bit I have read from the “Talking with children about art” book has been helpful along the same lines. I recently checked out a book for my illustrator project that is called “tell me a picture”. Also quite helpful to break down into little steps how to talk to children about art.
In my job at the Museum, I have a great deal of fun talking with kids about science, but when I take them up to the art gallery it becomes more difficult for me. It just feels so vague, and I often I get the feeling the kids make up answers that they think I will like rather than putting much thought into it. I have been trying to think how to re-phrase my questions better. I think I can use some of these guidelines to practice.
On the topic of art games, does anyone know of any art related computer games? Something like where in the world is Carmen san Diego only about art? That’s a real market nich I would think. I’d buy it for my kids.
I liked the specificity of the art history discussions in chapter 21. I am teaching a life drawing class for high school students down in California this summer and I will make use of some of the suggested artists to show work from.
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