Creatively Teaching
Multicultural Art
Text and photography
by Marvin Bartel , Ed.D., Professor of Art and Art Education ,Goshen College Other essays in Art Education by this author can be found at this link.
Can I teach art in a ways that makes my students take pride in their own
cultural identity while gaining respect and appreciation for the art of other
cultures? Those teaching in international schools are likely to have
students with more diversity or at least more understanding of cultural
diversity than an art teacher in a national school.In North America, I
frequently see school displays of projects based on tribal art of Native
American Tribes. Some of these are dolls that are felt to have magic
powers in their traditional settings. Some are totem pole projects that
are copies of Native American Totems.OWNERSHIP ISSUESIs it right to imitate
what might be sacred or at least traditional in another culture? How do I
teach art in a way that makes my students take pride in their own culture while
gaining respect and appreciation for the art and customs of other
cultures? Is imitation really flattery? Might there be more
authentic ways to be creative while developing appreciation for the art forms
and artworks of another culture? What does imitation teach about the role of
artists? What should be the role of artists in today’s world? What
is critical thinking in art? Shouldn’t we teach that artists interpret
and create meaning rather than copy that which is already created?WHAT ARE THE
UNDERLYING CONCEPTS?May I suggest some ideas
about how we might teach about multicultural attitudes while teaching art with
integrity? As a teacher, I must first familiarize myself with the
intention of the “other” artist. In the case of the Northwest Native
American Totem Pole maker, I must understand the role of the Totem pole as an
identity symbol for the family or tribe that it represents. I must have
some appreciation for the Totem’s cultural role in helping tell the spiritual
stories of the tribe’s interdependence on nature, animals, and their deep
respect for their ancestors. If I know the artist’s intentions, I have
prepared myself to motivate my students to create art based on similar
intentions related to the culture of the students in my class.Many art lesson are started
by the teacher employing what is called image flooding. In image flooding
the teacher shows many examples of completed work by artists and former
students. I do not think much of image flooding because it works by
giving many answers to the problem before the students have even considered the
problem or worked at their own solution finding skills. Image flooding
results in skillfully produced imitations, but does not teach much about
problem finding and problem solving. Teachers who depend on image flooding
may pride themselves on achieving skillfully slick student artwork, but I
wonder whether students are learning how their art can create visual meaning
and feeling in response to their own lives.USING WHAT WE OWN
In the approach I am suggesting, we might begin the lesson with some
self-reflection. Who are we? Students individually list things
important to their identities. Lists are not only words. Lists can be
made with small sketches. Several groups made up of students with common
interests might be formed in the class. The groups brainstorm and add
things to theirs lists and sketches. They emphasize things that they can
agree to represent themselves, “Who We Are and What We Like.”
SPEICIFIC
IDEAS
Youth culture has lots of popular arts, sports, pets,
hobbies, music interests, brand names, clothing, hair styles, jewelry, foods,
makeup, heroes, and so on that they can list. In some schools they might be
encouraged to articulate values and beliefs. A particular classroom
might have a very nationalistic group and a very international group.
As a high school student, my social studies teacher encouraged me to be in a
group to take a world government position against another group that took an
isolationist position. We learned the arguments for each
position. We didn’t create a sculptural assemblage or a collage, but if
it were an art project these would be logical outcomes.
Click the image for
a larger view of it.
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CREATIVE COLLABORATION
For the art projects each group could work together to develop an assembled sculpture that would represent the important aspects of their particular set of interests, values, or beliefs. Media might be heavy paper or card stock that is cut, folded, and glued into three dimensional forms to represent the symbols. Their colors, sizes, textures, shapes and their juxtapositions would help produce dominance and subordination of various inclusions. Artistically and aesthetically they should strive for unity with interesting variety.DEVELOP CRITICAL THINKING AND CREATIVITY I admire art teachers who discourage trite cliché symbols. These teachers do not give suggestions or answers when students are having problems. These teachers use questions that move students to invent experimental and expressive ideas. These teachers are pleased with a variety of unexpected outcomes. These teachers help students become independent critical thinkers, problem solvers, and self-assessors. When teachers make suggestions and answer student questions they may be teaching students to become dependent on “experts.” Students do not find the joy of thinking, researching, experimenting, and solving problems for themselves. When the groups complete the artworks, they could be given a writing guide and asked to write a statement or viewer’s guide articulating the work’s intentions. Other class members should be asked to respond without seeing the statement to point out what they first notice and explain why they notice it.CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS Finally, near the end of the unit, the teacher should feel free to provide a lesson about Totem Poles. Think of it as image flooding at last. Students should now be able to respond to the teacher’s questions about the possible meanings of Totems within Native American culture. They will have a better appreciation for the how the artist must have struggled to decide on each part of the project. Better yet, a group of students does research. They then write and present a drama they have written about being members of the culture. Their roles include art-makers and art-users in the selected culture. Art education research has shown that this method of learning art history and multicultural art is one of the favorites among high school students.
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