Three possible meanings for art at school

Abstract

Based on the observation of several educative institutions in the city of La Plata3, we will reflect on three different possible meanings which are used to construct the idea of art and of artistic education at school, and we will analyze their relationship to what happens in an art class.
The representations that were analyzed are, firstly, art as an expression of hidden inner world that is waiting to come out, as an innate skill: the talented student is the one that can produce a naturalistic image; art is not an object of the learning teaching process.
The second representation to be analyzed considers art as practical use of theoretical classifications on form, color and composition as universal, true and unquestionable concepts; the teacher as a container of information that usually gives a lecture; and students as image producers that can respond to what has been explained.
The third and last conception is art as a language, i.e. as construction of images and as a part of a production process that includes research, production and reflection stages.
The theoretical work frame is a product of postmodern conceptions, with contributions of social semiosis, accepting the concepts of language, text and intertext, a choice that excludes many other possible choices.
Artistic education considers the student’s previous knowledge, his or her interests, and from that point, broadens to other artistic texts. Moreover, it is concerned with teaching artistic operations that take part in the concerns of current art and that consider past and present productions from different societies.