Contemporary Art Education– A deceptive paradigm-
I walked in and they were all there. Students liming, seeming unconcerned about the happenings around them, oblivious to the changes taking place in their community and the impact these changes will have on their lives.
They were all ‘art’ students, paying for an education dubbed as the ‘degree in fine art.’ What most of them, if not all do not know is that the degree they will get will not be worth the paper it is written on. They do not even realize that they would have spent four years in an institution of higher learning and have not even grasped the basic principles and or skills to make art.
Some have been striving for good grades. Grades based on a theoretical response to an ‘express yourself’ mindset perpetuated by art teachers and instructors who themselves lack quality art making skills. they’ve been told so many times by their teachers and parents that getting good grades in school can help them to get into a better college. And having a good college education will help them to get a better job, which in turn will result in a higher salary and quality of life.
Most art students today have the expectation of a good quality of life and a successful artistic career simply by obtaining a college art degree. It is not necessarily the case.
The shocking truth about Contemporary Art Education is that it is fundamentally flawed. No longer are art colleges teaching material and techniques of painting: no longer are appropriate methods being taught; no longer do art instructors and teachers have a satisfactory portfolio which will make them respected by their students; no longer are art teachers and instructors practicing artists known and respected by society. What we now have is a cadre of incomplete art teachers competing against each other and stifling talent which come under their hand.
Traditional, good quality art education, is replaced by the teaching system that can be summarized in just two words: “express yourself.”
But can one express himself without knowledge of and grasp of the language needed? Art is a language and the mechanics and structure of the language must be thoroughly grasped and then put into practice.
If art is the process by which line, form and vision are used to create an expression for impression then all the rudiments must be taught; and since art is process and practice then it requires the acquiring of the technical skills which are appropriate for proper execution. Every paragraph in a discourse is made up of words, every word made up of letters and every letter has a particular phonetic expression. These must be taught to the aspiring scholar before he can effectively communicate. The teaching and learning of the fine arts should be no different.
It is hard or near impossible to find a college in Jamaica that has a successful fine artist as a teacher, who teaches students on his or her own example:
– how to build their own successful art brands;
– how to effectively run their own art business;
– and how to manage their own art careers
The student who attempts to model his practice on their precepts must inevitably arrive at the most disastrous results. Frustration is a must, despondency inevitable and sooner rather than later a student who has spent many thousand of dollars studying art for four years ends up working in a supermarket as a cashier because he lacks the requisite skills to make art. Such a waste.
Here a deception has been effected; money has been collected, and the customer has had to walk away empty handed.