Texas Trends in Art Education, Volume 3, Number 1, Fall 1985 Page: 40
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Nevertheless, museum education in
/40 1977 also reflected an emphasis on the
child's development, as opposed to specific
art content. This emphasis took the
developing the child's perceptual awareness.
As stated by Silver (1978) in The Art Mu-
seum As Educator,
..museums in the '70's have as perhaps
their most popular, or most often stated
goal, that of teaching visual awareness
or perception: how to see (p. 269).
This objective was most often put into prac-
tice through the use of museum "gallery
games" and experiential response activities.
The Arts Awareness approach developed at
the CAM and utilized in the university-
museum cooperative project, was a reflec-
tion of this trend in museum education
(Baskin, B. 1976; -Friedberg, 1973; Hurwitz,
A. and S. Madeja, 1977). However, while
emphasizing possibilities for individual growth
to be gained from Arts Awareness experi-
ences, the approach also set the stage for
more serious consideration of the work of
art as a subject for study. The setting within
the university reinforced the idea of evaluat-
ing teaching strategies by drawing on the
research orientation of the art education
program. A component of observation and
assessment strengthened the Arts Aware-
ness curriculum.
Each author has analyzed her current
thinking about objectives in art education
and the role of cooperative programs in at-
taining objectives. From the museum edu-
cator's point of view, a key element in setting
objectives is the intrinsic value of the art
object: its potential as the subject of study,
and its essential role in the aesthetic area of
education in the visual arts. This view un-
derlines the need for access to real works of
art not only for children in our schools, but
especially for pre- and in-service teachers.
Additionally, it calls for systems of teaching
art content through these encounters with
art works. This educator retains a prefer-for developing curriculum, whether at the
elementary, secondary or college level, an
emphasis on inquiry, questioning, descrip-
tion, comparison, analysis, direct experi-
ences with art works, and knowledge of art
content and skills is essential. Thus, com-
munication and linkage with the art museum
is needed for developing the visual arts pro-
gram fully and to help to overcome the bar-
riers of distance and expense which separate
children and teachers from art museums. Al-
though there are valuable techniques for
deriving considerable educational benefitence for participatory, experiential methods
including inquiry techniques and questioning
strategies (Hamblen, K., 1984) in bringing
individuals (whether children, university stu-
dents or teachers) and works of arts to-
gether. The approach is one possible avenue
of teaching art content in the larger context
of how teachers are prepared to teach the
subject of art. This larger context implies a
need for some form of cooperation between
the institutions which prepare teachers and
the institutions which are the repositories of
much of the subject content of education in
the visual arts.
From the university art educator's point
of view, there is a clear need today to attend
to the aspects of art history, art criticism,
and aesthetics, in addition to the art produc-
tion realm. Arts awareness strategies repre-
sent one useful technique in the teacher's
approach to teaching. Certainly it remains a
valuable technique for introducing visitors,
particularly first-time visitors, to the art mu-
seum and its contents. Mittler (1980) em-
phasizes the direct, descriptive, and reactive
experience with the art work as the first
step in awakening the child's visual aware-
ness, sensitivity, and curiosity. However,
schools teach children over an extended pe-
riod of time and need to develop, in addition,
long-term strategies to attain educational
objectives. The research literature provides
the art educator with the rich background in
children's artistic and cognitive development
needed to develop the child as artist, critic,
aesthetician, and art historian (Clark and
Zimmerman, 1978). Furthermore, percep-
tual activities need to be seen in the context
of cognitive functioning and the development
of visual symbols or language. The view
that visual art development is inextricably
bound to cognition has been expressed by
Gombrich, Arnheim, Golomb, Olson, Win-
ner and Gardner, among others. If the
cognitive approach to the visual arts and cre-
ativity (Gardner, 1982) is used as the basisfrom different forms of art reproductions
(Schwarcz, 1982), it should be recognized
that children and teachers need exposure to
original art works, if at all possible. Con-
versely, art works in a museum need audi-
ences, and one of the most crucial audiences
or client groups is that composed of students
and teachers, the audience of the present
and future.
In addition to the authors' views, the
notion of the importance of access to real
works of art in teacher training is occurring
in the art education literature. Packard
(1984) in speaking of art teacher prepara-
tion, states that "we must guarantee that
art-teacher students experience an aesthetic
art education themselves" (p. 269) and fur-
ther suggests broadening field experiences
to include the art museum as well as the
school setting. "If we are to revise art cur-
riculum in public schools, we must begin
with teacher education at the preservice and
inservice levels," Kuhn continued.
Our experience suggests that much can
be achieved toward an art content or disci-
pline-based art curriculum, such as that de-
scribed by Greer (1984), by some form of
cooperation between university art educa-
tion departments and art museums utilizing
existing "expertise and resources" of the
two institutions. A model for analyzing the
web of intersections between the university
art education department and the art mu-TRENDS / fall 1985
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Texas Art Education Association. Texas Trends in Art Education, Volume 3, Number 1, Fall 1985, periodical, Autumn 1985; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth279681/m1/42/?q=architectural+drawings: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Art Education Association.