Jess - Learning in and through the visual arts

Hi Merian,

I Love your pun fish! I did this activity years ago for a graphics design course and I remember drawing a frogmouth owl with a frog’s tongue lashing out to catch a fly! Did you find that doing the activity made you more comfortable exploring the visual arts?

Speck’s observation that the primary school art curriculum is perceived as being non-essential (Speck, 1999, p. 71) brings to mind my primary school days. I think that from what I have observed during my professional experiences, the observation is less true today. I think that art could be better integrated into other subject areas however.

The power of drama has been observed by Bird et al. (2012), who state that it allows young people to imagine and engage with human experiences (p. 70) and that it involves creative problem solving and critical enquiry (p. 69). There is also an important place for the visual arts in the curriculum as contemporary culture is becoming ever more dependent on visual means of communication (Brown, MacIntyre & Watkins, 2012, p.113). The visual arts also allow children to explore, observe, question and record in order to make sense of the world around them (Brown, MacIntyre & Watkins, 2012, p.113).

A recent project I led at my preschool was the creation of a community chair to be displayed in a local arts festival. The theme was ‘points of reflection’. Through the process of creating our chair, we were able to explore many of the children’s ideas, hopes and feelings. The chair also brought together many of the other interests we were exploring at the time and we were able to really integrate a whole lot of subject content. We were learning about living and non-living things, growth, colours, measurement and being a part of a community.

As I guided the children through the process, I learnt much about the children’s interests and abilities as they expressed themselves through drawings and paintings; and discussed colours and what different colours make us feel. The project encouraged collaboration, which promoted development of social skills; and self-reflection, which helped the children to reflect on their learning and what they want to learn.

Here are some pictures of the first stage of putting down ideas and some chairs from the festival.

I think that this was a successful art project that realised the potential of visual arts in education as it adhered to many of the key principles outlined by Brown, MacIntyre & Watkins (2013, p. 113).

Have you seen examples of visual arts experiences being linked to other learning areas, Merian? Or used visual arts experiences in your teaching in accordance with the key principles put forward by Brown, MacIntyre & Watkins (2013, p. 113)?

Jess