Posted on by John Cussans

Art Education as Training of the Senses

I will be leading an online discussion on the theme of ‘Art Education as Training of the Senses’ on Monday 23rd Feb from 6 – 7 pm as part of the National Association of Fine Art Education’s NAFNET series of events. The event is free and open to non-members. You can book your place here.

I will give a short introduction to the theme, followed by an open discussion. Below is a bullet-point overview of the introduction:

Background

  • BA Fine Art with Psychology at Worcester
  • Curriculum redesigned to integrate psychology into fine art teaching
  • Students interested in art therapy often have lived personal experience of mental health issues, neurodevelopmental disorders and autism, and secondary experiences of severe mental health conditions, addiction and dementia
  • Covid pandemic of 2021 exacerbates problem of overwhelm of NHS mental health support
  • How might socially-engaged arts practices address public mental health crisis
  • Arts and Health Research Group at UW came out of that

Teaching Context

  • A significant percentage of students have common mental health conditions, neurodevelopmental disorders or autism characteristics
  • Fine Art education historically welcoming of neurodivergent people
  • Studio teaching is especially accommodating of these differences
  • Studio as safe environment
  • Attention issues evident for the last 20 years. Students glued to mobile phones
  • Smart phones directly implicated in an increase in mental health issues, especially anxiety, depression and ADHD
  • Intensified by consequences of Generative AI
  • How to get students off their phones and screens
  • Five ways to Wellbeing: Human connection, physical activity, attentiveness, learn new skills, giving

Art Education as Training of the Senses

  • Art as Education of the Senses: 19th century idea (John Ruskin), roots in Schiller’s Letters on Aesthetic Education (German Romanticism, Goethe)
  • Alternative educational models: Steiner, Montessori, Reggio Emilia
  • Marshall McLuhan: new media transform the ‘ratio of the senses’
  • Deep Listening: tasting, touching, hearing, smelling, sensing
  • Mindfulness and embodiment practices: bring the body back into teaching
  • The senses think. Thought is a sense.
  • Aligning Fine Art Education with Creative Health

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