Artistic Literacy
Two tenets exist within this domain—creating and responding. Combined, these cultivate wisdom, innovative thinking and intrinsic values; processes not easily quantified, but vital to lifelong learning in an increasingly technological, commercial and global society.
“Artistic Literacy (is) the ability to encode and decode (“read” and “write”) aesthetic wisdom that is expressed and received in symbolic and metaphoric forms.”1 “Artistic Literacy” supports “artistic modes of thinking” by teaching students “how to make good judgments about qualitative relationships,” that “problems can have more than one solution,” and that “complex forms of problem solving are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity.”2 “Artistic Literacy” affords the opportunity to develop personal value systems within our 21st Century world through the discernment of historical and cultural information to foster growth in making informed decisions in order to live and work well with others. 1 “Wisdom Lost: Artistic Literacy as a 21st-Century Skill” by Charles E. Combs (2009) 2 The Arts and the Creation of Mind by Elliot Eisner (2002) Visual Arts
A comprehensive art curriculum will actively engage students in their own learning to develop concepts and skills through sensory awareness, aesthetic discrimination and authentic production tasks. “Individuals who participate in an effective visual arts program develop visual thinking abilities and analytic and expressive abilities that result in a high level of functioning in academic areas such as mathematics, sciences, social sciences, and language arts. (Visual Art instruction) serves as an excellent model for approaches to creative problem-solving that mark the educated person.”1
1Creating Curriculum: A Framework for Visual Art, Iowa Department of Education, Iowa Alliance for Arts Education and Iowa Arts Council (1995) |
The new voluntary National Core Arts Standards became available online June 4th. Visit the website to browse or customize your own National Art Standards Handbook. http://nationalartsstandards.org/ AEI's Standards & Benchmarks (2011)
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