Why we make Art and why it is taught

Richard Hickman en su libro "Why we make Art and why it is taught" hace una distinción crítica entre aprender acerca del arte como algo opuesto a aprender a través del arte. Aprender de la experiencia de hacer es una práctica orgánica y evolutiva completamente ajena a copiar conceptos o formas dadas, sino totalmente relacionada con la interpretación de las cosas". Y aunque esta clara distinción

In Antony Gormley’s words “Hickman makes the critical distinction between learning about art as opposed to learning through it. Learning from the experience of making is an organic and therefore evolutionary practice—nothing to do with copying concepts or given forms but everything about interpreting things” [Foreword, p. 10]. This distinction between learning about and making art is very crucial and although many do not think twice to agree with Hickman’s argument, the practices of art education and the policies by which art has long been curricularized, often tell a very different story.

So in Section One, a comprehensive description and critique of art and art education clearly establishes the problematic of the relationship between art per se and art in schools leading Hickman to emphasize that “learning in art is fundamentally developmental and is an interaction between a logic core acquired through maturation and interaction with the environment [where] understanding is (…) unique to each individual” (p. 57),

By way of concluding this review I call the reader’s attention to an inspiring passage where Hickman, the avowed artist-and-nature-lover, does not hesitate to say something good about this world of ours: “What is wonderful in nature is not that there is some divine hand that made it, but that we have the capacity to perceive these things as beautiful. Art objects — things made significant by human hand — are made to be the focus of our aesthetic attention by having a pleasing and/or arresting form and are often complex enough in various ways to incite that other important characteristic in people: curiosity” (p. 99).

Indeed, even if our cause for art were to be lost, curiosity should be enough for us all to insist, everywhere and at all times, that to learn through art is to live meaningfully. This is indeed why we all persist in making art and why we equally endeavour to teach it.

Cite This Article as: Teachers College Record, Date Published: June 10, 2008
http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 15272, Date Accessed: 6/19/2008 9:47:47 AM