Introduction
Art, be it a painting or sculpture, has the power to move us. As an art teacher, I have always been very interested in having my students appreciate the power of art. I have organized my art curriculum around the concepts of Ernest Boyer. An educational specialist, he advocated making curriculum relevant to students and suggested Eight Human Commonalities that all people share. These are a shared life cycle, creation and use of symbols, aesthetic responses, a sense of time and space, group membership, production and consumption, an awareness and connection to nature, and values and beliefs. I have organized my art curriculum around these universals and their sub—topics, e.g. art sends messages, art is used for celebrations, art communicates identity, and so on.
I focus on the relevance of art, not only in my students' lives but in all cultures and time periods. I want my students to appreciate that all people, from different times and different cultures, have created and used art for the same reasons. These universals help the students to see the world globally, in commonalities, and help them connect the history of art to their experience of being human. I tend to perceive art through a cultural and historical lens, while I know other art teachers who perceive art though an emotional lens. I think most art teachers focus on one or both of these two approaches: looking at the historical and cultural connections in art and/or the emotional, affective aspects of art.
But I have never thought about another human commonality that affects art—-something that connects the experience of all people—-the human brain. People, in general, including myself, tend to think that the feelings inspired by art are in the gut (or the heart or the soul), whatever is deemed by the person the most important part of the body. But the most important body part involved in responding to art is really the brain
I never considered art through the lens of neuroscience. Yet, it is, after all, the brain that controls how we recognize what we see. The brain is the driving force on how the world is seen AND how art is created and viewed. This link between art and the brain is fascinating and I feel students will find it extremely engaging. Even though this science is not being taught as part of art education, I am convinced that it should be, because art and the brain are so intertwined.
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