ART

1 Art (Elementary) alberta Education, alberta , Canada(1985)A. PROGRAM RATIONALE AND PHILOSOPHYArt education is concerned with the organizationof visual material. A primary reliance upon visualexperience gives an emphasis that sets it apartfrom the performing arts. Acquiring proficiencyin art requires systematic instruction in how wesee, interpret and make sense of visual stimuli. Itrequires an understanding of how others interpretthe visual messages that are products of this kindof activity. It requires an education in the use oftraditional and contemporary tools, materials education is concerned with havingindividuals think and behave as artists. For thepurposes of art education, the term artist isequally valid to describe one who has worked fora lifetime or someone who is a relative , art is accessible to all individuals.

2 Itspractice results in changing the individual, inchanging the relationship among individuals or inchanging the social physical education is concerned with pointing out thevalues that surround the creation and cherishing ofart forms. Art is not merely created, it is relative values given to art products not onlytell us about those who produce them, butintroduce notions of how values have changedover time. Learning to see gives us the means toview the work of others and perhaps to relate thatto our own works. In this case, however,searching for organization may be helped byknowledge about other people s education deals with ways in which peopleexpress their feelings in visual forms.

3 Art takes thehuman condition as the focus of study. Personsinvolved in the visual arts reflect upon andexternalize their personal feelings and intuitions orthose of their fellow human beings. As artists, theyshare this ability with the writer, the poet and themusician. In making parallels and discoveringrelationships with the performing and literary artswe gain a sense of common education deals with making and defendingqualitative judgments about artworks. Becoming aperceptive critic attunes the individual to the uniquecontribution of the artist. By adopting the stance ofcritic we can develop methods of qualitativedifferentiation. We gain a sense that not all art isthe same, and we are able to articulate reasons forpreferring one work over (Elementary) alberta Education, alberta , Canada(Revised 1985)B.

4 GENERAL LEARNER EXPECTATIONSThe elementary visual arts program, through thefour components of REFLECTION, DEPICTION,COMPOSITION and EXPRESSION, providesopportunity for a variety of experiences: a chanceto grow and develop as an individual; to developperceptual awareness; to learn visual arts skillsand concepts; to interpret and communicate withthe visual symbol; to create; to value, reflect uponand appreciate the cultural aspects of art; to relateand appreciate art in everyday major goal of the program should be to givethe child a complete set of experiences. The childshould have:AN INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCEThe individual is at the centre of visual student is special, with a need forrecognition and a need to develop pupil may enter the program at a differentstage or level and each may progress at a differentrate.

5 Art education is ultimately for the self-realization of the individual, developing the abilityto see, understand, react, create, appreciate should be provided for the child toexperience: pride in achievement valuable group activities a sense of worth practice in making should be provided for enabling thechild to grow in: independence individuality self-realization self-awareness VISUAL EXPERIENCES eeing is a discipline that can be fostered. Visualeducation speaks to systematic instruction inperceptual skills: how we see, interpret, discoverrelationships, make should be provided for experiencesthat: contribute to the child s development ofperceptual awareness in natural andmanufactured LEARNING EXPERIENCEArt education involves skill development in theareas of drawing, painting, print making, sculptureand fabric, photography and technographic arts inorder to extend the child s capabilities to expressoneself communicate through image education is the acquisition of knowledgethrough the elements and principles of designfrom functional and fine arts contexts.

6 Arteducation is a schema of should be provided for experiencesthat contribute to: a knowledge of the vocabulary of basic artterms and expressions appropriate to thestudent s level of development skills and techniques necessary for meaningfulself-expression by the child an understanding of art media, materials andprocesses and their appropriate use an understanding of the expressive contentinherent in visual COMMUNICATION EXPERIENCEV isual images communicate to the individual andthe individual can communicate through visualimages. In a world heavily populated by visualimages, created by humankind, happened byhumankind, spewed by machines, dealt by nature,Art (Elementary) (Revised 1985) alberta Education, alberta , Canadasevere communication demands are placed on theindividual.

7 Art education is visual reading should be provided for experiencesthat contribute to the child s: ability to interpret images ability to express through images ability to reflect about CREATIVE EXPERIENCEA natural outgrowth of seeing, interpreting anddiscovering relationships is expressing. Thelanguage of art is available to all and can be usedto express both thought and feeling. Art educationprovides the means and opportunity for creativeactivities of a wide nature; encourages the use ofthe imagination, inventiveness and a spirit ofinquiry; and provides should be provided for: a wide range of experiences with variousmedia and art materials drawing from the total curriculum for thepurpose of creating examining and exploring a variety of visualcommunication forms and purposes contemplating possibilities and exploring theimagination as a source of images and asproblem-solving devices expressing feelings and individual CULTURAL EXPERIENCEArt speaks a universal language of culture,spanning history and peoples.

8 Art is part ofhumankind s heritage. Art education is concernedwith valuing, reflecting and appreciating should be provided for: awareness of and appreciation for the ethnicand cultural aspects of the visual arts in oursociety an understanding of art as a common oruniversal means of expression among allpeoples an appreciation of artistic accomplishments,past and ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERIENCEE nvironment natural and human-made affectsthe individual. Visual images and decisionshappen continually in today s world from choicesof clothing to television programs, from choices ofwhere to live to what to do with the front lawn, tothe look of hubcaps on one s car. Art education isconcerned with informed choices of manufactureditems and quality should be provided for: making aesthetic judgments about things inthe environment noting that the visual arts are an integral partof daily (Elementary) alberta Education, alberta , Canada(Revised 1985)C.

9 SPECIFIC LEARNER EXPECTATIONSOVERVIEWThe elementary art program level one (Grades 1and 2), level two (Grades 3 and 4) and level three(Grades 5 and 6) is a unified, sequential coursethat focuses on four major components of responses to visual forms in nature,designed objects and development of imagery based onobservations of the visual organization of images and their qualitiesin the creation of unified use of art materials as a vehicle ormedium for saying something in ameaningful each of the content areas emphasizes adifferent aspect of art learning, the teacher candesign an art lesson with any one of the four areasas the nucleus from which learning in the otherthree areas can evolve.

10 It is necessary to see therelationships that exist among the four contentareas so that teachers can emphasize each as it isappropriate to students and their Reflection, attention is given to three majoraspects:1. analyzing structures in nature2. assessing designed objects3. appreciating of natural and human-made forms is anecessary component of Reflection. The skillsinvolved in appreciating art for its content can bedeveloped as lessons in themselves or used toprecede or follow lessons in Depiction Depiction, the basic skills of image making aredeveloped using one or more of the threereflective areas as referents. These skills aredeveloped according to forms and theirproportions, actions and viewpoints and thequalities and details of those Composition, the image-making skillsdeveloped in Depiction are employed to createintegrated artworks.