The Importance Of Visual Culture Art Education

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Visual culture covers such a wide array of visual artifacts that it is often difficult to ascertain what exactly visual culture art education is and how it is used in the classroom. Visual culture has no core or basic principles that need to be taught before going on to something else (Duncum, 2015). There is an advantage to this however, in that visual culture art education can be tailored to the culture and interests of the students. Students can learn to understand the sociocultural influences of visual artifacts that are relevant to their lives. Understanding is the first key step to communication and therefore crucial if students are to make meaningful art. Although visual culture can be used to connect art to students’ lives in many…show more content…
Human beings in general look at an object and seek to recognize it and make connections to their prior knowledge. Learning takes place based on these cognitive connections. Meaning of images is constructed by the viewer based on their sociocultural background which includes visual culture (Freedman, 2003). Much of the knowledge that children gain about the world and about themselves is constructed through visual culture (Tavin & Anderson, 2003). Images play a powerful role as a filter through which we know the world (Christopoulou, 2010). It could be the toys they play with, the movies or TV shows they watch or the story books they read. Films like those made by Disney provide learning opportunities about our world and our social relations (Tavin & Anderson, 2003). The messages from such popular films may be contradictory to the social norms of the culture of the students or to what they are being taught in school, but individuals are educated unconsciously by media culture (Han, 2013). If art educators use the wealth of knowledge that students have about the world already to provide new learning experiences, students can more easily connect and construct knowledge which is meaningful to them. Popular culture can shape understandings and it can also be used as an entry point to talk about art or other subjects which students are learning in…show more content…
Visual art other that it’s important to consider the relationships Art educators should also understand that the content in their curriculum has changed to include visual artifacts from popular culture and not just the fine arts (Chin, 2015). Many proponents of visual culture believe that current art curriculums don’t adequately address the core purpose of art, the complexity of art, or relate to students’ lives. Often times because of the time constraints on art teachers, they can’t teach beyond what is viewed as core knowledge such as technical skills or learning about established master artists. Spending too much time studying Monet or making color wheels doesn’t make sense when outside of school students are playing Minecraft and producing videos to share online (Duncum, 2015). An art curriculum that focuses on technical skills often simplifies works of art to specific formal skills such as asymmetrical balance and creating texture, but doesn’t connect the relationships of art to life or the ideas behind creating art (Freedman, 2003). Teachers should be considering the ideas and beliefs that art deals with, which is the primary purpose for making art (Duncum, 2015). Another reason why it is important to challenge to old constructs of art knowledge is that artists draw on all types of knowledge to create and many artists may do all types of art rather

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