Guest Post: Sean McGraw writes about the role of art in education... (draft)

This is a "holder page" for Sean McGraw's guest blog post.


I've invited Sean to comment and expand on the following observation from his blog:

As an artist and art educator, I feel it critical to find ways to implement traditional academic training into the classrooms of American youth. In my observations and time spent in art classrooms I have experienced vast numbers of young people who yearn to know how to draw and create realistic art. The problem is that there is an inherent issue in the art education of today as it does the student a major disservice by neglecting to provide the skills these students need to mature and become successful in the arts. I propose to change the system. Now is the time to lay a foundation of academic skill and knowledge that will guide and help prepare the American art student for success in whichever area of the visual arts he/she chooses to pursue. By understanding the technique and concepts to create honest representational work, the student will be able to fully realize their creative and artistic potential through having mastered the skills necessary to make concrete their abstract thoughts.

It is not easy in our modern world to find support for academic art education as a viable and meaningful aspect of curriculum. Many today see no financial gain in the arts or they are totally ignorant of art and its aesthetic and intellectual importance. It is time that the real attributes to art in the school be laid out. We need to bridge the proverbial gap between theory and practice by teaching students skills they can use.

The lack of art education materially affects the commercial prosperity of the nation, and its character as an educated people.

~ Walter Smith

There are a majority of those today who feel teaching anything other than the fostering of creativity as a reproach on the individualistic and conceptual nature of art itself. Post-modern art and the established majority of art teachers in the U.S. continually see art as a sort of experimental appreciation class. Many educators without any form of classical training teach hundreds of students a year and imbed in these young people a false idea of art and the profession of the artist. Many of the Post-modern opinion believe genius in the arts, as an artist is achieved by those born possessing talent and thus, cannot really be taught.