There is concern that sustainability of a once vibrant art league is at risk due to the fact that the study of visual arts are marginalized in the current culture. With the marginalization comes a loss of aesthetic learning and desire for critical observation, dialogue and commentary of the visual culture.
What can be done by arts agencies to foster collaboration of art practitioners, educators, advocates and patrons to influence and shape parental and public opinion about art education? I do not know the history of “art education” in a specific community and how the arts entered into the community at large.
I would like to learn how to sustain a local social arts community in a contemporary society of mass media culture and high speed global communication.
How has collaboration between teachers, researchers and other art agencies promoted the “arts” agenda in the community? Has this collaboration affected arts education theory and practice?
My goal is to highlight the art education practices that marginalize the “non-art making” studies of art appreciation. Is art education teaching students to “appreciate visual arts?” Is there a place for art appreciation in an alternate learning situation? If art educational practices do not influence individuals to support, maintain, patronize, purchase and value the arts, will studies in the visual art and art museums be marginalized?
Who are the largest segment of art patrons and how are our current art educational curriculum addressing their interests?
Can the art class or an alternative “art influences” class be offered to students who are less inclined to “create or make” art?
