windows on the world || thistles and thistledown: art and design education in scotland

National Art Education Association

Thistles and Thistledown: Art and Design Education in ScotlandAuthor(s): Stuart MacDonaldSource: Art Education, Vol. 51, No. 4, Windows on the World (Jul., 1998), pp. 39-46Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193709 .

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Thistles and Thistledown:

Art and Design

C~n, . .....

Education in

ike Scotland's national emblem-the thistle-a plant whose spikiness makes it easy to perceive but difficult to grasp, art and design education in Scotland needs studied attention. For a variety of historical and cultural reasons, Scottish art and design education is quite distinctive from the other national systems that operate in the United Kingdom. This paper

celebrates some of these differences through several case studies. These exemplify how, because of the strategic desire to differentiate its system of art and design education, Scotland has developed wider, more integrative, practices than may be the case within some neighbouring national curriculum and assessment prescriptions. For North Americans engaged with developing art within a national programme like Goals 2000, Scotland might offer a useful insight.

BY STUART MACDONALD

The Thistle; Scottish Symbol. "Variations on a Theme" by Linda Mieklejohn, student JULY 1998 / ART EDUCATION N



IDENTIFYING THE THISTLE Thistle and thistledown-Scottish

symbolism-suggest both in and out of focus, both sharpness and softness, both essence and context; qualities that have been applied by various writers to Scottish history and culture. At the same time it is a metaphor that can suggest the historic pluralism inherent in the Scots/ Celtic/ Gaelic/ Norse/ English condition of Scotland itself. It is a far cry from the romantic cliches of Braveheart or Rob Roy.

In terms of art and design education, this might suggest why Scotland has avoided the recent polarising tendencies seen elsewhere, for example, observed in debates about the National Curriculum for Art in England (Steers, 1995). This may be due to the cross- fertilising characteristic of Scottish culture, inclusive rather than exclusive, based on the range of Scottish alternatives-Lowland and Highland, Scot and Gael, Protestant and Catholic, male and female, black and white. Scottish culture is totally consistent with present-day notions of cultural identity, with identity politics, as much as it is with history. Scotland's system of art and design education is as much a communication of cultural identity as literature or folk music. It has involved borrowing and adapting what is available. Sometimes this has meant scrupulously avoiding anglo-centred models for no reason other than the desire to be different.

Distinctiveness in Scottish art and design education has meant yoking together craft skills and artisanship (design) with artistic training (fine art), accompanied by a long attachment to issues of taste, then art appreciation, then critical studies, crucially integrated with practice. The strategic significance of this cannot be underestimated. In England, for example, the debates have

nearly always been subject-centred as opposed to child-centred. In Scotland art and design initiatives have been directed toward greater attention to improved effectiveness of art and design education upon all aspects of child development. This is not simply a Modernist attachment to child-centred expression. Art appreciation has long been recommended in Scotland as an antidote to a limited focus on child-centred creativity; a pedagogy which has been perceived by some as a legacy of Modernism in need of reconsideration (Efland, Freedman, & Stuhr, 1996). As a particular contribution of Scottish art and design education, it is as much a pointer to postmodern approaches to curriculum as what Wygant, calling for more international comparative studies, has termed a "hidden set of corrective adjustments" (1990, p.ix-xii).

CASE STUDIES In a keynote address to the fourth

European Congress of the International Society for Education Through Art (InSEA) in Glasgow (1997), the Minister for Education, Brian Wilson described the Scottish system, in which for pupils aged 5-14:

...art and design is one of four areas of the Expressive Arts. National guidelines set out a curriculum offering a series of developmental experiences involving pupils in investigating materials and media; expressing feelings, ideas and solutions; and understanding, appreciating and sharing in all the products of others.

For secondary pupils (age 14+) there are:

...eight curricular categories... One of these curricular categories is entitled "Creative and Aesthetic" and within this category a wide range of courses are available including several in the visual arts. These courses enable pupils to understand, appreciate and respond to their world in creative, visual and non-visual ways. The Creative and Aesthetic courses have a secure place in the curriculum.

Government endorsement of art and design in general education in the context of an international conference on the theme of our Futures by Design indicates increased recognition of the significance of the subject. Moreover, official approval highlighted art and design as fundamental to Scotland's "cultural and economic frameworks" (Wilson, 1997). How the centrality of art and design

in education in Scotland contributes to what Chalmers (1997, p.83-84) has described as "making a difference"- going beyond the disciplinary basics to touch on wider issues affecting social and cultural change-is exemplified here by three case studies:

* Media Education, * Community-based Art and Design

Education, and * Architecture and Environment-led

Initiatives.

Each demonstrates the integrative nature of the curriculum in Scottish schools and the diversity of approaches that are possible even within a national examination-led system that is quite different from the North American



*, .

pattern.

MEDIA EDUCATION As I have described

elsewhere, Media Education has enjoyed a privileged place within art and design in the Scottish context (MacDonald,1997). To those promoting a postmodern approach to curriculum this is a potentially rich area, not least because of the possibilities of introducing more issue-based content. For example, media- based activities using photography, video or computer imaging have been perceived by Willis (1990) as both a democratising influence (because oftheir closeness to the cultural Figure 1 interests of young people) and The Gre an encouragement to use students imagination and fantasy- practices which, according to some critics, have been obviated by the juggernaut of international curriculum reform. One of the difficulties in trying to introduce difficult topics or issues into present-day, result-conscious programmes has been that conventional fine art media like drawing and painting can sometimes hinder the development of young peoples' ideas. And, lack of skill in an area such as drawing may sometimes act as a brake on creativity. This is where new technology and photography comes in, by facilitating the most imaginative thoughts and feelings regardless of the child's level of ability. Artists-in- residence schemes can provide additional motivation.

An example of this is School Works by Glasgow's community-based

I.s

THE WELLYBOOl GANG AND THE

SEARCH FOR FREEDOM

at Welly Boot Story. Media work using digital photography, s age 10-11 years

photography gallery, Street Level. Supported by the the local education department and the Scottish Arts Council, which endows the arts, this exhibition featured 20 projects from primary and secondary schools. It was a unique initiative in several respects, not least because exhibitions by school students in such a specialist gallery are risky and, therefore, rare. School Works demonstrated the wide range of approaches that are possible under the contemporary banner of photography and film-based media. Organised concurrently with an Amnesty International art exhibition which was running at the city's main art gallery, School Works offered schools an open invitation to participate. The brief was wide as the theme Freedom. Equally, it was open to work in any photographic medium from static images to narrative forms like photo-stories and

animations. In addition, to provide the needed resources and expertise, Street Level's education officer set up short-term

? f "

artist residencies with M__ ~interested schools, drawing

upon the gallery's professional membership to provide the photographer/artists.

The outcomes were as diverse as the media that were employed. One high school produced portrait work using traditional, black-and-white studio photography. Working with artist Christina McBride, children from a special needs school showed how powerful large-scale images can be created using the simple contact method of photograms. A popular

magazine technique like the photostory was used effectively by a different age group. Animated projections by youngsters from a junior school also resulted from the interaction with the photographers in residence.

What proved especially forceful in presenting an emotive theme such as Freedom was the use of the digital camera. In tandem with a computer, the digital camera allowed images to be grabbed from the environment and manipulated using software to create unexpected effects. This was seen to good effect in junior schools where artists Mark Dawes and Anne Marie Copestake promoted the use of fantasy and imagination to relate, respectively, Jack and the GiantJelly Babies and The Great Welly Boot Story (fig. 1). The medium lent itself to combining text

JULY 1998 / ART EDUCATION



with photographic image, and making a kind of photographic collage- techniques that in themselves are quite sympathetic to the methodology of primary school project work. As an example, Mark Dawes' week-long residency was based on an established theme of Jack and the Beanstalk. The introduction of the Freedom theme coupled with the use of electronic imaging resulted in a surreal photostory. The GiantJelly Babies (fig.2) showed a range of activities from generating the story to creating props and characters, manipulating and collaging the final phographic images, using the computer and software. The final images were colour printed, mounted, and framed in storyboard creating a booklet for the class.

What is significant in the case of these schools, however, is the encounters with artists living and working in the local context. Dawes and Copestake represent a steadily growing number of artists working in ephemeral, lens-based media in the public arena in Glasgow. For example, as part of Glasgow's Year of the Visual Arts celebration, Dawes turned the top floor of a city-centre hotel into a

TOP LEFT: Figure 2

The Giant Jelly Babies. Collage work using digital imaging, students age 10-11 years

ABOVE: Figure 3

Clydeside Mural. Large-scale work by primary stage children working with artist Julie Brooks

ART EDUCATION / JULY 1998



Goldfish Bowl by projecting images from within the room, creating at night the effect suggested by the project's title, but at the same time generating mixed feelings of curiosity, voyeurisms and mystery within the many viewers who looked up at the installation.

What this case study offers is an illumination of the opportunity to introduce multi-media, digital technology into child-centred learning whilst propounding a widened definition of art, design, and media education. At the same time, through interaction with contemporary artists, it may allow for the kind of cultural and socially prescient critical creativity that is sometimes missing from present-day art instruction. It also presents avenues for teachers and students that revealed ways of dealing with contentious subjects like confinement and the loss of freedom. Not least, it poses an alternative locus and future for media education within art and design.

COMMUNITY-BASED ART AND DESIGN EDUCATION

Just as Chalmers has pointed out that the work of local artists studied for its content provides a starting point "for socially relevant art making" (1997, p.83-84), actual involvement with artists in residencies and workshops can have a similar effect. July Brooks, artist-in- residence at Golfhill Primary School, Glasgow, and her school/community- led drawing workshop based on the local built environment is a case in point. The Clydeside Mural is the largest drawing and painting on canvas to be undertaken by a primary school in the United Kingdom (fig.3). Exhibited most recently in the context of the 1997 InSEA European Congress in Glasgow, it measures approximately 70 feet long and 20 feet high. It is a powerful statement about the capabilities of children aged 10 to 11 and how they can respond to their own environment.

Its development took the children to visit various sites along the river Clyde, where they concentrated on and recorded the themes they noted in

Figure 4

Architecture Workshop. Children work with architects

to plan environmental changes to school.

their sketchbooks-shipyards, transport, water, leisure. Back in school these themes were enlarged using charcoal. With the artist's help the children then constructed the huge black and white panorama using acrylic and other media. The work then became a backdrop for a public dance and performance to which parents and the community were invited. As well as creating a sense of community well- being and raising self-esteem through the satisfaction of bringing such a complex project to fruition, it also furthers a sense of group participation in addition to articulating children's thoughts and feelings about the place in which they live and how they can identify with and celebrate it.

ARCHITECTURE AND ENVIRONMENT-LED INITIATIVES

Participation in projects that draw their inspiration from the local environment is one way of moving the art curriculum; engaging children directly in architectural projects is another. This is even more cogent when the building concerned is the the one that children have daily contact with-their school. Such architecture in education projects can facilitate children's involvement in managing social change.

St Jude's Primary School project, The Schoolfor Tomorrow, has implications for socially minded North American art educators. The project came about through the collective desire of parents, teachers, and pupils to improve what one parent called the "miserable sight" of decaying concrete




and barbed wire of the school which is situated in an area of multiple deprivation. St. Judes has a good academic track record but its physical environment leaves a lot to be desired. Because of the feelings surrounding the Dunblane tragedy, school safety was inevitably an issue. St Judes, however wanted an holistic approach to the problem and, realising that school security is more about opening minds than closing doors, sought a way of generating enthusiasm and fresh thinking. This was done by organising an event involving architects as catalysts to work with the children and staff (fig.4). Local community and business were also invited. After launching the project, each class in the 200-pupil school then took part in a workshop with an architect. The outcomes of the day provided an ideal platform for taking the more fully fledged Figur project forward, achieving the Desig principle aim of challenging preconceived ideas about the school environment, and bringing contemporary art, design and technology directly into the classroom by collaborating with design professionals.

The next stage in the project is to link primary school children with local designers, architects, and landscape architects, in order to examine together opportunities to creatively enhance the school environment. Through a series of explanatory workshops this team will seek to gain

e5

gn Issues. Workshops with architects can help manage change.

an understanding of their own potential and of the potential in the existing environment. The workshops will involve all members of the school community and all aspects of the curriculum. They will stress the importance of design issues and raise the confidence and self-esteem of the children and that of the school community in their ability to instigate and manage change (fig.5). The product of the workshop stage will be semi-permanent environmental art installations that will raise awareness of

all the issues explored. Also, a feasibility study will be published recording the process for other schools and an exhibition will be used as a source of information for the creation of a detailed brief defining a programme of actual built improvements to the school.

The project will be integrated into the curriculum. Importantly, the project will be used as a vehicle to implement the new Scottish Guidelines on the Curriculum 5-14, particularly in Environmental Studies and Expressive Arts using Design as the medium of transferability. Through this mechanism the children will encouraged to see the project as part of culture, as integral to everyday life. It is important that art, design, and architecture, in school as in the world outside, are shown to intertwine and that creativity is central to economic and social

prosperity (fig.6). "Model" is a keyword in this project.

At one level it is used in a practical sense as a way of thinking out and realising ideas-designing in three dimensions is an essential aspect of what design professionals do (fig.7). At another level it is about providing role models and exchanging roles. Children in schools like St Jude's suffer from a range of deprivation, not least separation from professionals whose example is prerequisite for personal

ART EDUCATION / JULY 1998



development In a third sense, "model" is used for representation, particularly in terms of benchmarking good practice. One of the project's goals is to become a demonstration project and to offer itself as a model to other schools. This will be done through publication, exhibition, and seminar.

The project offers considerable scope for research as it is is both exploratory and developmental. The value of mutual learning cultures, how they are established, under what

conditions, with what resources and interactions, and how they create new knowledge is a clear focus. As Bruner (1996) has indicated in the context of what he terms modem urban conditions, promoting self esteem through the community-of-learners approach ought to be a main educational priority. School is an entry into culture, not merely a preparation for it. Contemporary curriculum reform has become so bureaucratised with the more formal criteria of performance

and assessment (at least in Europe) that this personal side has often been neglected. Alongside the focus on effective learning in that context, also of value is the exploration and understanding of how successful staff development (teacher education) can be facilitated, especially if models are borrowed from the culture as an alternative to traditional training models now perceived as less than successful. Already the project has utilised a successful model; the launch event used an approach developed by architects in the public realm. Also, the school coordinator spent several days work-shadowing within an architect's practice. Such practices move teachers forward and, therefore, constitute a relevant form of professional staff development The issue is how, within a mutual learning context, can we investigate the possibilities for staff development? What are the collateral benefits for parents and other adults in that scenario?

Lastly, the St Jude's Safe Environment Project, because of its emphasis on mutualism, offers an ideal opportunity to eschew bureaucratic research and adopt naturalistic- phenomenological-descriptive methodologies. Such an approach would facilitate access to the wider learning context held out by this project Research also offers potential partners the chance to be associated with a cutting edge project in a highly topical area, one which will also have worthwhile outcomes for its community.

LEFT TOP: Figure 6

Design and Everyday Life. Work by children age 5-6

years LEFT BELOW: Figure 7

Doing WhatArchitects Do. Modelling is an important element in built environment programmes.




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I ,, -.... - Figure 8 Critical Studies. In Scotland, Critical studies is an integral part of course from age 5 and is linked with design and fine art activities

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THISTLES AND THISTLEDOWN- -CONCLUSION

All of these Scottish case studies are convergent in terms of recent art policies which advocate stronger links between art in school and art outside. Strategies that integrate media education, along with the interaction with local artists and designers, and the social process of designing, and which use the context of the local built environment or the public realm, can help young people adapt to constant change. This may mean doing work that references the built environment, as in the case of Brooks, or engages with it directly like the St Jude's project In both, the role of artist/designer/architect has proved to be central. Such strategies are seen by UNESCO (Perez De Cueller,1995) as essential in finding a new form of urbanity, or what Miles (1997) has referred to as making to cities more convivial, and what another United Nations document has termed "child friendly cities" (UNICEF,1997). More

importantly, what such initiatives also have in common is a way of broadening the concept of creativity, and, in turn, the art and design curriculum.

According to a United Kingdom think-tank, Creative Cities in the next millennium will depend less on natural resources and more on the generation of knowledge (Bianchini, 1995). This requires a new, more holistic way of thinking.

Creativity in general, and art and design education in particular, will help shift the focus from the physical to the ambient, from hard to "soft' infrastructures. Thus a new narrative is being formulated. Thistle and thistledown-like its national emblem, art and design education in Scotland is both of these. Perhaps Scotland has something to offer art educators and those concerned with creative education elsewhere, if only we can grasp that thistle.

Stuart MacDonald is Education Directorforthe Glasgow UK Festival of Architecture and Design.

REFERENCES Bianchini, F., & Landry, C. (1995). he creative

city. London: DEMOS. Bruner, J. (1996).The culture of education.

Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Chalmers, G. (1997). Social issues in

secondary art education. In K Grauer & R. Irwin (Eds.), Readings in Canadian art education, (pp.83-88). Quebec: Canadian Society for Education Through Art.

Efland, A, Freedman, K, & Stuhr, P. (1996). Postmodern art education: An approach to curriculum. Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.

MacDonald, S. (1997). Remembering the future: Art and design and media education in Scotland Journal ofArt and Design Education, 16(1), 47-54.

Miles, M. (1997). Art, space and the city. London: Routledge.

Perez de Cueller, J. (1995). Our creative diversity. Paris: UNESCO.

Steers, J. (1995). The national curriculum; Reformation or preservation of the status quo. Journal ofArt and Design Education, 14 (2), 129-138.

UNICEF. (1997). Children's rights and habitat- Working towards childfriendly cities. New York: United Nations.

Willis, P. (1990). Moving culture -An enquiry into the cultural activities ofyoungpeople. London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Wilson, B. (1997). Minister's Speech. In M.Cook & S. MacDonald (Eds.), 3D - Discoveries in design and architecture, no 2.

| ART EDUCATION / JULY 1998

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windows on the world || thistles and thistledown: art and design education in scotland

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