Contemporary Art for Elementary Students

As I was reading Anne Thulson’s article Contemporary Practice in the Elementary Classroom: A Study of Change, I kept coming back to Olivia Gude’s article New School Art Styles: The Project of Art Education. I think that these articles are strongly related. In fact, I think that Thulson exemplifies Gude’s vision for contemporary art education. Gude talks about re-imagining art curriculum and reevaluating how we approach projects. She urges us to let go of the old school and “make room for other sorts of projects and other kinds of art experiences.” She addresses both the content and the way that curriculum is executed. Gude states, “Asserting that students must recapitulate the history of art in their studies before understanding and making contemporary art is as discreditable as believing that students must learn outmoded conceptions of biology or physics before being introduced to the range of widely accepted contemporary theories. "

There is no reason why elementary kids should learn about outdated eras in art history before they learn about contemporary art. In fact, I believe that it is more important for young kids to be able to connect with art in the context of the current world they live in. If art is made meaningful at a young age, it is more likely to stay meaningful throughout life. I believe that art education that is approached holistically can give kids powerful tools to help them lean about themselves, explore and evaluate the world around them, and make sense of and give context to the complexities of life. The aim of art education is not to produce a class full of professional artists, but rather to show kids the possibilities of art and help them to find a way to use art to improve their lives.

The way that Thulson has her students interact with art accomplishes this goal. Her students are not just passive observers of art, nor do they merely make formal imitations of contemporary art. They actively analyze and bring their perspectives to the lessons, as they did in the case of the paper shoes. She also teaches the importance of context. Context is a concept that is extremely important in all aspects of life, not just art. She teaches it through site-specific work, where kids can learn through doing that not all work is appropriate in all settings. In this way, kids relate art to environment. Interacting with contemporary art and putting work into context, students have a much more authentic experience with art and are better able to make it relevant in their lives.

One thing that Thulson talks about is trust. It is my belief that teachers tend to underestimate their students, and therefore they do them a disservice. Kids will either rise or sink to your expectations. But if they are engaged and interested in their learning, what they are capable of can be truly amazing.

I found Thulson’s method of documentation to be very captivating. It just seems to capture what art education often misses. It puts the focus on the experience rather than the product. I think that this is so much more appropriate for students. Art education is about facilitating learning, not creating products. I think that preparing the documentation can be an important step for kids as well. It makes them evaluate their actions and bring everything together. It has the potential to be a final and unifying step, bringing cohesiveness and a more complete understanding to experiential learning.