Art in Education: Reflective Journal of a Community School Project

Introduction

The aims of the Fine Art Student Programme build on three aspects — skills, experience, and theory — extending comprehension and competence in the practice of art in the public realm while fostering learning among less experienced students. The role of art in society is many-faceted and far-reaching socially, politically, and culturally. Art may persuade, stimulate the mind, or catalyze changes within the fabric of society. Art not only contributes to the development of the human being in understanding the physical, emotional, intellectual, aesthetic, social, moral, and spiritual dimensions of human experience, but also assists with "the expression and identity of individuals and groups through the recording and sharing of experiences and imagination" (The Arts, 1998). Within the context of community, the influence of art is evident "in the design of the clothes we wear, the buildings in which we live and work, and many of the objects we use every day" (The Arts, 1998).

Artistic works have the power to "inform, teach, persuade and provoke thought… [and] reinforce existing ideas and values, challenge them or offer new ways of thinking and feeling. They can confirm existing values and practices, and they can bring about change" (The Arts, 1998). Art education assists students in the use of critical thinking, creative imagination, interpersonal and vocational skills, and disciplined inquiry to develop their own ideas. Creative art processes include improvisation, interpretation, design, construction, choreography, arrangement, editing, and direction, all employed through collaboration, group work, and individual problem-solving (The Arts, 1998).

Peter Sellars, director of the Los Angeles Festival of Arts, is credited with stating: "There is no meaning, either in art or in society, without participation" (1991). Lucy Kimbell, in her work "Some Ways of Working: Themes Emerging from Artists' Residencies With/In Business," writes that "residencies are more about the communication between the parties involved than the art that's produced." Kimbell further notes that while the artist is one who "makes things," they also "make contexts" (n.d.). She argues that the artist must "decide where to place themselves in relation to the organization in which they are working: whether to be more or less critical, more or less professional, more or less self-determined. One of these dimensions is the extent to which artists have a clear idea of what they want to make or how they want to work. At one end, there are artists who want to produce particular pieces of work, and at the other, there are those whose practice feeds off their engagement with the context and the people within it" (n.d.).

Don Foresta, in "The Network Metaphor," states that "a person relating to the new propositions of a work of art is in fact going through a change of perception, learning to see differently through the differing set of relations proposed by the artists. From the beginning of the artistic revolution of our times, artists have been anticipating the new space we are trying to define. Cézanne, in his still-lifes, broke with the perspective of the Renaissance — with its imposed single point of view — by proposing several different points of view within a single image through multiple angles of view" (n.d.). Foresta holds that "art is a process, first in the act of creation and then in the act of appreciation. The spectator, observer, forms part of the indispensable chain that is art" (n.d.). He further points out that Marcel Duchamp regarded an artwork as "having two poles, the artist and the spectator," with each being equally important because both are participants in the "definition of a work" of art.

Another initiative of note is the REAL Programme, a Glasgow-based learning partnership designed to increase access to learning opportunities deemed appropriate for the 21st century — a century characterized by "rapid change and complexity requiring new capacities and skills" (Williams, Morisette, and Vazquez, 2004). REAL Programme partners include Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Colleges Group, the University of Strathclyde, the University of Glasgow, Glasgow Caledonian University, and Learning and Teaching Scotland. The work of Williams, Morrisette, and Vazquez (2004) concentrates on the Trialect section of the programme, which supports young individuals in focusing on learning in relation to the arts through a process of practical engagement led by mentors who are active participants in the art industries.

Some comments arising from this programme are as follows: "The importance of relationships — grounded in equitable, fair, and respectful disclosure — to the development of a culture of participation and learning, cannot be overemphasized" (John West-Burnham and George Otero, cited in Williams, Morisette, and Vazquez, 2004). "Teaching young people is about relationships with them. Relationships between teachers and pupils improve the wider they are" (Glasgow School Head Teacher, cited in Williams, Morisette, and Vazquez, 2004). Among those interviewed who participated in the REAL Programme, every individual "confirmed the value of cultivating positive relationships" between mentor and learner. These relationships were characterized by "the existence of reciprocity, recognition and respect" (Williams, Morisette, and Vazquez, 2004), and it is noted that "learners' sense of their own value is enhanced by contact with mentors who treat them as equals, openly praise their work and address them as fellow creatives" (Williams, Morisette, and Vazquez, 2004). Mentors in the programme made the discovery that "teaching could be a special way of engaging in collaborative work" (Williams, Morisette, and Vazquez, 2004).

During the first week, the author and another art-in-residence student visited Royal Docks Community School and were introduced to the first cohort of children — a group of 20 students in Year 8. These students participated in the programme for a total of four weeks, after which a new group would rotate in, allowing for maximum participation and the opportunity for each child to make a contribution. The author and the other art-in-residence student were introduced to the children as mentors for the Cascade Project.

The task for the day was to visit local sites in the community, enabling the children to photograph their surroundings. Sites visited included the Excel Exhibition Centre, the Royal Victoria Docks, the City Farm, the Custom House, and Thames Barrier Park. While at the Royal Victoria Docks, the children walked along a tall footbridge that offered a sweeping view of the area, giving them a different perspective on the place where they live and learn.

Structure of the Royal Docks Community School Project

College students participating in the four-week project were enrolled in a Travel and Tourism course. Their involvement offered a learning experience that enabled them to work alongside others as part of developing their customer-focused skills, while also familiarising themselves with the local area and discovering the docklands as a potential future tourist attraction. This experience reflects the sentiment expressed by Sellars (1991), who described art as "an invitation to become part of something that is larger than yourself."

Exploring the Royal Docks Community

During Week One, which was prior to meeting the children of Royal Docks Community School, the author and another art-in-residence student went to the Garden Café to meet with the project coordinators, youth workers, and college students who would be assisting in the role of mentors to the secondary school children.

During Week Two of the Royal Docks Community Project, one of the students addressed the author as "Miss." This moment not only provided a great sense of satisfaction but also deepened the author's awareness of the role being fulfilled in the eyes of the students involved. It was also during Week Two that the awareness of more than 100 different languages being spoken within Royal Docks Community School became fully apparent, evidencing the multicultural character of East London and the rich cultural diversity of the local area. Within the group of 20 students, three spoke the author's own mother tongue.

Student Journal Entries – Week One through Week Eleven

During this week, a lunchtime performance was arranged for students and teachers. One act featured three African students performing a traditional African dance. The thirteen-year-old students danced in a manner that the author initially found to be erotic and sexually provocative in nature, with clothing that was revealing. The author paused to consider whether the conservative environment in which they had been raised — rooted in a traditional Chinese cultural heritage — had biased these perceptions. It became clear that in order to earn the respect of children in such a culturally diverse environment, a teacher must cultivate a mindset that allows for the removal of personal bias toward other cultures.

Week Five introduced a new group of 20 Year 10 students, with the author allocated three of them. While the beginning of any new arrangement is often somewhat awkward, a youth worker introduced an engaging warm-up game that allowed everyone to become acquainted in a fun and interactive way. A key realisation during this week was that one must remain forever a learner — there is always something new to discover. Rather than taking students off school grounds, the group photographed the immediate school surroundings.

Week Six comprised visits to Thames Barrier Park and walks around the docklands area.

During Week Seven, students were taken to visit the Docklands Light Railway control station, where a courtesy lunch and a presentation on network operations were provided. The tour included areas ordinarily off-limits even to DLR employees, which was considered a privilege. The author learned that the Docklands Light Railway is a separate entity from the London Underground and discovered how integral the network is to the community — connecting local areas to the broader artery of the city. The fact that the children were permitted to enter the private organisation's offices demonstrated that, despite being a profit-making entity, the DLR maintains a genuine interest in its relationship with the community it serves. The DLR also agreed to display the students' work in the advertising carriages of its trains.

A common expectation of students in this age group is that they are rebellious or disrespectful, particularly toward older adults. However, an incident in the park during Week Eight decisively challenged this assumption. Three male students were play-fighting, chasing each other around the park, when one noticed an elderly woman passing through the area. He suggested that they stop and allow her to pass first. Before this incident, the author had connected social consciousness closely with age; witnessing this act of consideration prompted a reconsideration of that assumption and encouraged a greater sense of faith and hope in the younger generation.

During Week Nine, Year 11 students joined the group. This week highlighted the importance of enforcing time scheduling. Three sites were planned — Cundy Park, Excel, and the Beach — but only the first two were visited. Because students were not pressed to complete their photographic assignments efficiently at each location, time ran out and the opportunity to visit the Beach was lost.

During Week Ten, the project coordinator was absent due to a prior engagement, and the lead youth worker was unexpectedly ill. As a result, only the author and one other university student were available to form an action plan in the twenty minutes immediately before the session began. This was experienced as a time of high pressure and considerable stress. The option to cancel the day's activities was considered, but a decision was made to proceed rather than disappoint the students. The result was a rewarding experience in managing the unexpected and participating in a rapid collaborative decision-making process.

Negotiations with outside organisations proved to be a complex process, requiring self-confidence and trust in one's own judgment. The author discovered that many opportunities exist for experimentation in face-to-face encounters with external institutions — for example, arranging to collect complimentary visitor tickets on the Docklands Light Railway for project members and students. The author spoke with the DLR community representative to secure the pre-arranged free tickets. These tickets not only enabled the group to visit various Docklands sites but also facilitated effective time-keeping, allowing all planned areas to be visited during this session.

The lessons learned during the project allowed the author to extend understanding and competence in art practice into practical application within the public sphere, as students were introduced to the surrounding area of their community throughout the project weeks. The experience also fostered in less experienced students an appreciation of art in its many and varied forms. As the author intends to pursue a career in arts education, participation in this project was invaluable in illuminating the cultural and diversity issues inherent to this field.

The work of Kathia Castro Laszlo, Ph.D., "The Evolutionary Role of Art," states: "In contrast to the Western notion of art, ancient cultures and traditional cultures of our time have artistic expression integrated into their lives. Art is part of the spiritual and community activities, and therefore has a central role in the functioning of their culture" (2006). Laszlo offers Pre-conquest Mesoamerica as an example — a society in which there was no art "for art's sake," because "art as a separate discipline and activity had not been socially constructed" (2006).

Among the realisations gained through this experience was that "art" differs markedly across the world's cultures. The forms, language, and sources of art within various cultures are shaped by the specific beliefs and values particular to each culture. Laszlo (2006) describes the evolution of art as encompassing "the patterns and dynamics of change in the cosmos, as well as in the living world: in the history of human culture and society no less than in the history of life on earth," acknowledging this as part of the "emerging meaning of evolution — not only the evolution of living species but the evolution of all things that emerge, persist, and change or decay in the known universe." Laszlo further holds that art evolution "can be considered a human activity playing an important role in the synergistic development of both the material and the consciousness aspects of human existence throughout our evolutionary journey" (2006).

This perspective brings to mind the traditional African dance performed by the students during Week Four and highlights the fact that dance in many African cultures is viewed as an integral part of daily life rather than a discrete art form. Understanding this distinction is essential for any educator working in a multicultural environment. As African dance traditions illustrate, the separation between art, community, and spiritual practice that is typical in Western contexts does not apply universally.