A Place for Beauty in Art Education

TY - JOUR

T1 - A Place for Beauty in Art Education

AU - Watts, Robert

PY - 2018/2/9

Y1 - 2018/2/9

N2 - For the past 100 years beauty has been marginalised in western art and regarded as a problematic notion in a range of cultural contexts. Art educators associate experiences of beauty with passive appreciation rather than active engagement, while researchers of children’s understanding of art characterise references to beauty as evidence of low levels of aesthetic development. This article draws on evidence from a recent study to challenge these assumptions. The study explored how children describe and analyse their perceptions of beauty and how they reflect upon and articulate their experiences of beauty. 51 children in two English primary schools were asked to find and photograph images they thought were beautiful, which they shared and discussed during a series of group interviews. The discussions offer evidence of the diversity of these children’s perceptions of beauty, of their awareness of how visual and formal qualities contribute towards the beauty of images and of how experiences of beauty can be meaningful and relevant to them. The article suggests that children’s responses to beauty are not merely passive but often expressive, and that some of their responses to beautiful illustrate art educators’ principles of participation, individuality and self-expression. It argues that art educators should re-appraise the value of beauty in art education and reflect on its potential for raising children’s levels of engagement with the visual world. © 2018, NSEAD/John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The attached document (embargoed until 09/02/2020) is an author produced version of a paper published in the International Journal of Art & Design uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

AB - For the past 100 years beauty has been marginalised in western art and regarded as a problematic notion in a range of cultural contexts. Art educators associate experiences of beauty with passive appreciation rather than active engagement, while researchers of children’s understanding of art characterise references to beauty as evidence of low levels of aesthetic development. This article draws on evidence from a recent study to challenge these assumptions. The study explored how children describe and analyse their perceptions of beauty and how they reflect upon and articulate their experiences of beauty. 51 children in two English primary schools were asked to find and photograph images they thought were beautiful, which they shared and discussed during a series of group interviews. The discussions offer evidence of the diversity of these children’s perceptions of beauty, of their awareness of how visual and formal qualities contribute towards the beauty of images and of how experiences of beauty can be meaningful and relevant to them. The article suggests that children’s responses to beauty are not merely passive but often expressive, and that some of their responses to beautiful illustrate art educators’ principles of participation, individuality and self-expression. It argues that art educators should re-appraise the value of beauty in art education and reflect on its potential for raising children’s levels of engagement with the visual world. © 2018, NSEAD/John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The attached document (embargoed until 09/02/2020) is an author produced version of a paper published in the International Journal of Art & Design uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

U2 - 10.1111/jade.12185

DO - 10.1111/jade.12185

M3 - Article

SN - 1476-8062

SP - 149

EP - 162

JO - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ART & DESIGN EDUCATION

JF - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ART & DESIGN EDUCATION

ER -