Rationale
To ask students to consider the contextual relevance of the work they create (or in this case, redefine/appropriate the contextual relevance of the work they create) is often like asking them why they come to school. Why are they doing it? It's a state requirement if you are sixteen or seventeen. But what is the purpose? Why do this? Without a deeper understanding of key concepts at the beginning of any unit, students will inevitably just being 'making art' or copying the design ideas from others. Students wait to be told what to do, they accept what they are told, and are willing to generate an 'answer to the problem' without really exploring or understanding the question. Here is an art project; here are some relatively significant examples/solutions to the problem, now make art. But what is art? This question, at any level of teaching studio art, opens the doors to some great discussions, for about three minutes - enough time for someone to contradict another's opinion and then for everyone to realize they don't really have a solid answer to the question (more on the critique process in the Objectives section of this unit). But there are always more questions. More than just making connections, art students must use critical thinking skills in understanding the information provided and in synthesizing that information into an art piece that conveys a message. Understanding contextual relevance in the art we make and consume helps us see the value in the conversations that art can entice us into and helps us broaden our view of our world and ourselves.
Art consistently challenges our notions of who we are and through which lenses we are viewing the world. In my studio art classes, specific critical thinking skills such as analysis, point of view, conceptualization, and synthesizing are used all the time. To be strong critical thinkers, it is important for my students to be well rounded, inclusive, and reflective in their view of themselves and the world they inhabit. A number of influential factors including age, economic status, and geography, impact how my students perceive themselves as consumers. This more specific consumer survey/evaluation will be expanded on in the last section of this unit: An Appropriation of Stuff – developing perspective on the things students have inherited, purchased, and consumed will be discussed as we look at these influential factors.
Over the years I've come to realize how few opportunities my students have to experience, both literally and figuratively, a change in their world. Though it is the goal of this arts educator that they feel safe to experiment with new ideas, processes and techniques. Here they inevitably move through varying perspectives. In short, in my classroom, our failures are embraced.
This past school year I met my Art III students at our Bechtler Modern Art Museum. It turned out to be yet another lesson for me in understanding perspective. The museum opened with much fanfare in 2009, yet in September of 2012, only one of the seventeen students invited had been there before. These are my top art kids! Those same kids went on and on about how they haven't been downtown since they were little. Moving around the city of Charlotte is one thing; the county of Mecklenburg is another story. Charlotte has been touted as the next disaster (AKA. Atlanta) in urban sprawl. The majority of my students live in the northern suburban area called the university district – if you don't drive your own car, 'you can't get there'. It is a messy combination of large semi-gated communities, rural farms, and trailer parks. The lack of efficient public transportation is an inhibitive factor in the accessibility of much of what our city has to offer to those kids. The social, ethnic, and economic divisions of neighborhoods lead directly to the second factor in their ability to view themselves as more than one kind of consumer.
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