Rethinking Materiality In Pre-Tertiary Studio Art Education In Ghana

Authors

  • Kwame Opoku-Bonsu Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Tecnology, Kumasi, Ghana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18533/journal.v6i12.1311

Keywords:

Materiality, Media, Competence, Visual Art Syllabi, Visual Art Examination Questions

Abstract

This paper explores the conventional artist and environment connections, and argues that, environment that produce the Senior High School student do so with peculiar material affinities and competences ripe for 21st century art. The culture of obliging student to a few institutionalised media like clay, dyes and paints in the studio based art disciplines inhibit the numerous possibilities available, and confines art education to limited aptitudes and few institutionally expected expressions in pre-tertiary art education in Ghana. Using content analysis, the paper examines the Art Curricula and WAEC examination questions for Art Students at the SHS level. It recommends that, curricula and examination item reviews, as well as the incorporation of visual and material culture into artistic processes through democratization and participations of candidates’ cultural backgrounds, will usher in an art education premised on meaning making and conception, and institutionally groomed cultural ambassadors with significant material and visual diversities and competences.

References

Addison, N. & Burgess, L. (2003). Introduction: Core Debates and Issues. Issues in Art and Design Teaching. Nicholas Addison and Lesley Burgess (Eds). RoutledgeFalmer, London and New York.

Anatsui, E. (2003-2008). El Anatsui: Gawu. April 22, 2007 to August 26, 2007. Fowlers Museum UCLA (An Oriel Mostyn Gallery Touring Exhibition) http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/el-anatsui-gawu

Andrus, L. (2012). Teaching Urban Students with Special Learning Needs: What We Have Learned through the Art Partners Program. The Intersection of Arts Education and Special Education: Exemplary Programs and Approaches. Sharon M. Malley, (Ed.).The International Organization on Arts and Disability. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Basu, P. (2013). Material Culture: Ancestries and Trajectories in Material Culture Studies. Handbook of Sociocultural Anthropology. James G. Carrier, ‎Deborah B. Gewertz (Eds) Berg, Oxford.

Boasiako, A. & Asare, B. E. (2015). The Multiple Streams Framework and the 1996 and 2007 Educational Reforms in Ghana. Advances in Research 5, 3, 1-15.

Buchli, V. & Lucas, G. (2001). The absent present: archaeologies of the contemporary past. Archaeologies of the contemporary past. Victor Buchli and Gavin Lucas (Eds.), 3-18. Routledge London.

Buskirk, M. (2003). The contingent object of contemporary art / MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Carroll, N. (2002). Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge, London.

CRDD (2010). Teaching Syllabus for Sculpture (Senior High School -1-3) Ministry Of Education / Curriculum Research and Development Division (Ghana Education Service).

Cottington, D. (2005). Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press Inc., New York.

Delamare, F. L. D. & Winterton, J. (2005). What Is Competence? Human Resource Development International, Vol. 8, 1, 27 – 46, March 2005 http://org8220renner.alliant.wikispaces.net/file/view/

Derrida, J. [1997 (1967)]: Of Grammatology. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Trans). John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

Du Preez, A. (2009). Introduction. Taking a Hard Look: Gender and Visual Culture. Amanda du Preez (Ed.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle.

Du Preez, A. (2008). (Im) materiality: On The Matter of Art. Image and Text: A Journal for Design 14, 30-41

Eisner, E. W. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Yale University Press/New Haven & London.

Erickson, H. L. (2005). Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction: Teaching Beyond the Facts. ELI Explorations 1, http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli4001.pdf

Flolu, E. J. (1997). Music in Ghanaian Education. The African Educator, 9, Dec 1997.

Freedman, K. (2003).Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art. Teachers College Press, Columbia University, New York, NY

Ganz, S. (2013). Horses. Emergence at the Bumbershoot, Seattle, WA, August 31 ~ September 2, 2013 http://sayakaganz.com/2013/08/bumbershoot/

González‐Ruibal, A. (2014). Archaeology of the Contemporary Past. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Claire Smith (Ed.), 1683-1694. New York: Springer

http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/109507/1/Archaeology

Grosz, E. (2008). Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth. Columbia University Press, New York.

Grushka, K. (2009). Exploring Visual Culture and Gender through Discursive Performative Visual Art Practices. Taking a Hard Look: Gender and Visual Culture. Amanda du Preez (Ed.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle.

Gude, O. (2007). Considerations for a 21st-Century Art & Culture Curriculum Author(s): Art Education, 60, 1, 6-17 http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27696187.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A8aced45a87a0f18282008cda8196ef0b

Gude, O. (2004) Postmodern Principles: In Search of a 21st Century Art Education. Art Education, 57, 1, pp6-14 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00043125.2004.11653528

Hansen, C. (2007). "Understanding Materiality and Human Experience through Creative Artistic Exploration", Journal of Iberian Archaeology, 9, 10, 55–69. http://repository.wit.ie/290/1/MatCult_CHansen_07.pdf

Harrison, R. and Schofield, J. (2009). Archaeo-ethnography, auto-archaeology: Introducing archaeologies of the contemporary past. Archaeologies, 5, 2, 185–209. http://oro.open.ac.uk/18343/2/Archaeologies_Introduction_FINAL.pdf

Harvard Competency Dictionary (n.d.). Harvard University. https://www.campusservices.harvard.edu/system/files/documents/1865/harvard_competency_dictionary_complete.pdf Retrieved 03/01/2016

Heidegger, M. (2001). Being and Time. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson (Trans.). Blackwell, Oxford.

Hickman, R. (2012). Why We Make Art. Visual Arts: Why Art Matters. Sarah Cunningham (Ed.), 13-14. Intellect, Bristol.

Ji, Y. H. (2010). Bull Man. http://www.designboom.com/art/yong-ho-ji-hybrid-human-tire-sculptures http://thesource.com/2014/01/15/sculptures-made-from-tires-by-yong-ho-ji/

Jones O. & Cloke P. (2008). “Orchard” from Tree Cultures: The Place of Trees and Trees in their Place. The Cultural Geography Reader. Timothy S. Oakes and Patricia L. Price (Eds). Routledge, New York

Lanny, V. (2008). Differentiating Competence, Capability and Capacity. Innovating Perspectives Volume 16, 3. http://innovationsthatwork.com/images/pdf/June08newsltr.pdf

Madoff S. H. (2009). Introduction. Art School: Propositions for the 21st Century. Steven Henry Madoff (Ed.), ix-xi. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mahama, I. (2017). Non-Orientable Nkansa. Fragments. 1 March – 13 April 2017, Bermondsey, North Galleries, Inside the White Cube 2017whitecube.com/exhibitions/ibrahim_mahama_inside_the_white_cube_2017/

McDowell, L. & Court G. (2008). “Performing Work: Bodily Representations in Merchant Banks” The Cultural Geography Reader. Timothy S. Oakes and Patricia L. Price (Eds). Routledge, New York: NY

MoE (2010). Education Sector Performance Report. Ministry of Education, Ghana.

http://www.idpfoundation.org/Ghana%20MoE%20Ed%20Performance%20Report%202010.pdf

Miller, D. (2001).Why Some Things Matter. Material cultures: Why some things matter. Daniel Miller (Ed.), 3-21. UCL Press Limited, Taylor & Francis Group, London

Miller, D. (2011): Getting Things Right: Motherhood and Material Culture Studies in the Maternal, 3, 2, 2011, www.mamsie.bbk.ac.uk

Mills, C. M. (2009). Materiality as the Basis for aesthetic Experience in Contemporary Art. Thesis, Dissertations, Professional Papers, 1289. http://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/1289

Mirzoeff, N. (2006). On Visuality. Journal of visual culture. Vol 5, 1, 53–7. http://nicholasmirzoeff.com/Images/Mirzeoff_visuality.pdf

Mirzoeff N. (2011). The Right to Look. Critical Inquiry. Vol 37, 3, 473–496 http://nicholasmirzoeff.com/RTL/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/RTL-from-CI.pdf

Mirzoeff, N. (1998). What is Visual Culture? The Visual Culture Reader. Nicholas Mirzoeff

(Ed.), with introductions, 3-13. Routledge, London.

Mitchell D. (2008). “California: The Beautiful and the Damned” from the Lie of the Land: Migrant Workers and the California Landscape. The Cultural Geography Reader. Timothy S. Oakes and Patricia L. Price (Eds). Routledge, New York

Najam A., Runnalls, D. & Halle, M. (2007). Environment and Globalization:

Five Propositions. International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. https://www.iisd.org/pdf/2007/trade_environment_globalization.pdf

National Art Education Association (2010). Learning in the visual age: the Critical Importance of VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION. National Art Education Association. http://www.arteducators.org/learning/learning-in-a-visual-age/3_NAEA_LVA_10.pdf

Olsen, B. (2003). Material Culture after Text: Re-Membering Things. Norwegian Archaeological Review, Vol. 36, 2, 87-104. http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~ewa/Olsen,

Pretty J., Ball A., Benton T., Guivant J., Lee D. R., Orr D., Pfeffer M. and Ward H. (2007). Introduction to Environment and Society. http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/17276_01_Pretty_Ch01.pdf

Pujol E. (2009). On the Ground: Practical Observations for Regenerating Art Education. Art School: Propositions for the 21st Century. Steven Henry Madoff (Ed.), 1-13. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Roberts, J. (2011). The Intangibilities of Form. Variant 41, 43-47.

http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/jroberts41.pdf

Roberts J. (2010). Art after Deskilling. Historical Materialism 18, 77–96. http://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/robertsjohn_artafterdeskilling2010.pdf

Rose, Gillian (2002). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. Sage Publication Ltd, London.

sei’dou, k., Ampratwum, G., Kissiedu, K. B., Riskin R. (2015). Silent Raptures: Emergent Art of the Kumasi College of Art. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 5(10), 131-137

seid’ou, k. (2014a). Gold Coast Hand and Eye Work: A Genealogical History. Global Advanced Research Journal of History, Political Science and International Relations ISSN: 2315-506X Vol. 3, 1, 008-016, January, 2014

seid’ou, k. (2014b). Adaptive Art Education in Achimota College: G. A. Stevens, H. V. Meyerowitz and Colonia False Dichotomies. Cass Journal of Art and Humanities January-March 2014, 3, 1, 1-28

Smith, T. (2011). Contemporary Art: World Currents. Laurence King Publishing, London.

Stankiewicz M. A. (2009). Constructing an International History of Art Education: Periods, Patterns, and Principles. The International Journal of Arts Education 7, 1 http://ed.arte.gov.tw/uploadfile/periodical/2264_00010020.pdf

Tolentino D. J. (2012) Authentic/Adulterated Artifacts: Material Culture and Ethnicity in Contemporary Java and Ifugao. Wacana Seni Journal of Arts Discourse. Jil.,11. http://wacanaseni.usm.my/WACANA

Tonah, S. (2009). The Unending Cycle of Education Reforms in Ghana. Journal of Education Research in Africa 1, 1, 45-52

Woets, R. (2012). “In Art, Anything Can be A Hit”: The Work and Teaching of kąrî’kạchä seid’ou. Time, Trade & Travel. SMBA Project 1975. SMBA Newsletter, 129. http://www.smba.nl/static/en/exhibitions/time-trade-travel/smba-newsletter-129.pdf

Weinert, F. E. (1999). Definition and Selection of Competencies: Concepts of Competence. SFSO NCES OECD. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/

Wexler, A. (2012). Art, Developmental Disability and Self-Representation. The Intersection of Arts Education and Special Education: Exemplary Programs and Approaches. Sharon M. Malley, (Ed).The International Organization on Arts and Disability. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Downloads

Published

2017-12-30

Issue

Section

Article

Similar Articles

1-10 of 377

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.