Locating visual arts education in a post-liberal arts landscape

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-159
Author(s):  
Jason Swift
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Educational Assistance ◽  
Visual Arts Education ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of

This article explores the current climate and location of visual arts at post-secondary institutions in a growing post-liberal arts climate in the United States. It discusses the future of visual and liberal arts education in a socio-political climate that appears to value career-ready degrees and profit over scholarship and the cerebral, emotive and visceral importance of education and the arts. The history of conservative efforts to remake post-secondary education and government efforts to defund it are discussed, providing context for the shift to a post-liberal arts landscape. A growing divide and class separation are investigated as an outcome of the efforts made to de-liberalize colleges and universities and defund educational assistance programmes, potentially placing it in the hands of the upper class and out of the hands of the middle and lower classes.

The Western Australian Art and Crafts Superintendents’ advocacy for years k-12 Visual Arts in education

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-130
Author(s):  
Geoffrey William Lummis ◽  
Julia Elizabeth Morris ◽  
Graeme Lock
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Visual Arts Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Specialist Teachers ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Western Australian

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to record Visual Arts education in Western Australia (WA) as it underwent significant change between 1967 and 1987, in administration, policy, curriculum and professional development. Design/methodology/approach – A narrative inquiry approach was utilized to produce a collective recount of primary Visual Arts teacher education, based on 17 interviews with significant advocates and contributors to WA Visual Arts education during the aforementioned period. Findings – This paper underscores the history of the role of Western Australian Superintendents of Art and Crafts and the emergence of Visual Arts specialist teachers in primary schools, from the successful establishment of a specialist secondary Visual Arts program at Applecross Senior High School, to the mentoring of generalist primary teachers into a specialist role, as well as the development and implementation of a new Kindergarten through to Year 7 Art and Crafts Syllabus. It also discusses the disestablishment of the WA Education Department’s Art and Crafts Branch (1987). Originality/value – The history of primary Visual Arts specialists and advocacy for Visual Arts in WA has not been previously recorded. This history demonstrates the high quality of past Visual Arts education in WA, and questions current trends in pre-service teacher education and Visual Arts education in primary schools.

Impact of the 2020 crises on the arts and culture in the United States: The effect of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement in historical context

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-465
Author(s):  
Stanley N. Katz ◽  
Leah Reisman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Organizations ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Arts And Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Sector ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement on the arts and cultural sector in the United States, placing the 2020 crises in the context of the United States’s historically decentralized approach to supporting the arts and culture. After providing an overview of the United States’s private, locally focused history of arts funding, we use this historical lens to analyze the combined effects of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement on a single metropolitan area – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We trace a timeline of key events in the national and local pandemic response and the reaction of the arts community to the Black Lives Matter movement, arguing that the nature of these intersecting responses, and their fallout for the arts and cultural sector, stem directly from weaknesses in the United States’s historical approach to administering the arts. We suggest that, in the context of widespread organizational vulnerability caused by the pandemic, the United States’s decentralized approach to funding culture also undermines cultural organizations’ abilities to respond to issues of public relevance and demonstrate their civic value, threatening these organizations’ legitimacy.

Novel Approaches for Assessing the Preservation of Historic Silks: A Case Study of the First Ladies' Gowns

MRS Bulletin ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Becker ◽  
Noreen Tuross
Keyword(s):  
American History ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Museum ◽  
First Ladies ◽  
Current Conservation ◽  
Unique Challenge ◽  
Conservation Project ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Friable natural products are often used in articles of personal adornment, and the perishable nature of these materials presents a unique challenge to museums. At the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, a collection of gowns worn by the First Ladies of the United States is a popular display of historical and sentimental import. Opened to the public on February 1, 1914, fifteen gowns were displayed as part of a “Period Costumes“ exhibit in the U.S. National Museum (now known as the Arts and Industries Building). Within just a few years, the exhibit was recognized as “one of the most interesting and popular in the Museum.” A First Ladies' Hall was created in the mid-1950s to exhibit the gown collection in period room settings. This design theme continued when the Hall moved to the Museum of American History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History) in 1964. The First Ladies' Hall was closed for renovation in 1987, allowing the curatorial staff to reassess the collection's use and conservators to perform long overdue examinations and treatments. Reinstallation of the exhibit is scheduled for spring 1992.The First Ladies' conservation project includes a history of each gown's use and exhibition as related to its physical condition and also includes stabilization treatments to meet the demands of future display. The current conservation project provided an unusual opportunity for extensive research into fabric deterioration of a popular and important collection. The goals of the research are twofold: first, to determine each object's state of preservation by studying the effectivenss of several analytical approaches with minimal destructive sampling and, second, to begin investigating the mechanisms involved in the degradation of silk, the material predominant in this collection.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document