Learning through the Arts: What’s the value? How do you do it well?

Did you know that students participating in a one-off art gallery learning programme were shown to perform on average 9.1% better in their use of critical thinking skills than students who hadn’t? This improvement increased to about 18% for students from low socio-economic backgrounds, and students from ‘minority’ groups. 

Auckland Art Gallery Schools’ Team do lots of research into best practice in Arts learning (and learning in general), and into the impact of Arts learning on students within and beyond the subject. We integrate this learning into the programming we develop for schools.

We wanted to share with you a few things we’ve found really interesting and useful lately, that we thought would be valuable for classroom teachers, in the classroom too.

Crystal Bridges study

• American study, focusing on what learning came out of a one-off gallery programme for school students 
• Largest study of its kind involving 10,912 Years 1–13 students and 489 teachers at 123 different schools 
• Results show critical thinking, recall, tolerance, empathy and cultural interest increase
• Effect is greatest for rural, high poverty and minority students 

Visible thinking skills

• A flexible and systematic research-based approach to integrating the development of students’ thinking with content learning across subject matters. Visible Thinking has a double goal: on the one hand, to cultivate students’ thinking skills and dispositions; and, on the other, to deepen content learning. By thinking dispositions, we mean curiosity, concern for truth and understanding, a creative mind-set, not just being skilled but also alert to thinking and learning opportunities and eager to take them 
• At the core of Visible Thinking are practices that help make thinking visible: Thinking Routines loosely guide learners’ thought processes and encourage active processing. They are short, easy-to-learn mini-strategies that extend and deepen students’ thinking and become part of the fabric of everyday classroom life. 

 Projects that use visible thinking skills to explore visual art and beyond

• Project Zero programmes and research (many other programmes are listed with this link)

– Christa Napier-Robertson, Schools Programme Coordinator

ArtLinks conference – December 2013

A conference that explores cross-curricular programming for secondary students, linking in and through the Arts. An experience that is relevant to a person’s real needs and interests… by being driven by its audience. An experience that feels less like a blind date, and more something that really connects people... That’s what we were trying to create with ArtLinks. 

I’ve never worked on developing a conference before - and that’s probably one thing that got me through it - not knowing what I was going to be dealing with! The other, very important thing that got me through it was being able to collaborate with my colleague Lee Devenish, Assistant Head of Art from Waitakere College and chairperson of Auckland Secondary Art Teachers’ Association. I cannot over-emphasise how key it was being able to co-develop this event, from concept to fruition.

So I thought I would just share a bit about the conference - what happened and why, and how people responded. Also I’d like to share a bit of our ‘where to next’.

Why did we do this?

• For all the reasons identified above, and… 
• Because we passionately believe that learning in and around the Arts is a vital part of a rich, holistic education. Current trends in education don’t seem to support this in our school system. We want to ensure these valuable areas of learning are not only maintained, but continue to expand and develop, and enrich all other learning areas also. 
• Because we are keen to expand the ways in which we work with teachers in our Schools Programmes. We wish to expand programming and resource options, but feel it makes most sense to do this in conjunction with teachers. So it’s important to spend time face to face with people, and to make the most of opportunities to hear the triumphs, and challenges being faced. We hope that continuing to do this, and to work in conjunction with teachers as we pilot and prototype, will help ensure that our young people get the best possible access to top notch Arts education, and this fabulous public institution and its resources.

Development 

• It took six months to pull ArtLinks together. After completing it, someone casually mentioned it usually takes two years to do something like this, so no wonder it felt like it did! 

What did we do to try to make it as relevant as possible to teachers? 

• Limited the subject areas allowed to participate this year. We concentrated subject areas to the Arts, English and Media Studies, hoping that this would give us the critical mass required to ensure robust conversation. 
• Ensured it was by-and-large teachers selecting the topics, and running the majority of sessions. We developed starter ideas for teachers to vote on, or add to for others to vote on. The ultimate idea being that the most popular session topics, would be those that ran. To be honest, that didn’t work entirely. See below for more details. 
• Set parameters around how sessions could run - sessions had to be participatory and focused on people having ‘take home’ ideas – no dry lectures allowed!

What did we do to try to encourage real connections between people?

• We invited a diverse group of people, including inviting arts professionals - visual artists, filmmakers, writers, musician, actors, and those working within arts organisations. We were interested in the idea of building a strong sense of community between this group of (hopefully!) likeminded people. 
• We did an icebreaker. This involved forcing everyone to work in a changing group of other participants, creating tableaus of artworks on display. And there were winners! Fastest to complete, and best photo (see some samples above). It was definitely a conference highlight - everyone was enjoying themselves! 
• Imposing the participatory session model on everyone - it was all about talking (smiley face) We made sure there were lots of yummy things to eat, and time to enjoy them with others 

How do we plan to ensure the learning ‘lives on’? 

•  Everyone who participated wrote themselves a postcard identifying what they’d learnt, and what they were wanting to take forward into their work in the following year. We posted these out to people in the first weeks of the New Year. 
• We audio recorded most sessions. These will soon be added to the Gallery’s YouTube channel and website, along with any worksheets etc that our session developers included in their sessions. We’d love for everyone interested to be able to benefit from what was shared at ArtLinks

What were some of the results? How did people respond?

'I just want to say thank you, thank you for holding, co-creating, and co-facilitating one of the best conferences/gatherings I have ever attended.' – participant feedback

• The conference itself got a fantastic response from participants. We were thrilled that putting such a diverse group of people in the room together seemed to result in such rich, connecting conversations. 
• This was especially great because getting to the point of getting people in the room, was a hard job! Our initial idea of getting potential participants to vote on topics of interest just wasn’t possible, as we just weren’t able to get enough response to make that work. In the end, we went with contacting people through a variety of means and asking them individually if they had something they were passionate about and wanted to talk to. Some of these topics aligned with our suggested topics. I personally spent weeks and weeks emailing and ringing people to drum up interest. Really worth it in the end though - I met many very, very interesting and passionate people that I remain in contact with. 
• Working on an intimate scale - only 70 people total, worked very well. This gentle ‘hot-housing’ meant people really got to know each other 
• The participatory model - which ended up mostly involving the facilitator sharing their work within a particular area, establishing key questions for the group, then opening the floor up for these to be discussed and others to make links with their own experiences, seemed to work well for our participants Lee and I bringing our diverse backgrounds together in this initiative worked really well. We each were able to bring to the table our unique knowledge, skills and networks to create this eclectic, but connected programme. 

Where to next?

There is obviously an appetite for this - so Lee and I are keen to continue to offer the conference in the future. We both love the idea too that facilitators at future versions of this event might be sharing experiences that came out of conversations started during this particular event! So, we’ve reviewed the feedback, and are in the process of thinking about questions that have arisen, and what we can do with the event going forward.


A few questions of interest we are thinking through: 

• What subject areas do we involve in this? We really value the relationships that have been formed with the teachers participating this year, and would love to be able to continue with these. However, there are also teachers of a range of other subjects it would be great to involve too. We’re a small venue, so larger numbers wouldn’t be a possibility here. 
• Topics discussed during ArtLinks involved ways of thinking that could require changes to pedagogical approach and timetabling. How do we get school leaders involved in this conversation too, as people in a position to influence these things within their school settings? 
• How might creatives across the Humanities contribute further to something like this in future? We had two fantastic keynotes, John Pule (visual artist and writer) and Vincent Ward (painter and filmmaker) who generously shared their practice with us. Likewise, we had a ‘creative careers’ session where other attending creatives could talk about their practice also. However, we didn’t have the opportunity to involve participants in much experiencing of art forms. I had another participant offer to perform her work during one of the sessions, and I had to tell her there wasn’t enough space! Since experiencing the Arts is so vital in valuing both the Arts and Arts education, how do we ensure this is present? Especially when participants may not be ‘experts’ in the Arts, so may be experiencing some of these art forms for the first time. 
• Are there ways we can better support teachers in sustaining connections made, and in implementing ideas developed during the event? 
• How might this conference support Maori and Pacifica students in achieving educational success? What relationships does the conference have with issues around secondary-tertiary transitions? 

Whether you came along or not, feel free to comment on anything above, and offer your ideas in answering some of the questions Lee and I are currently considering.

- Christa Napier-Robertson, Schools Programme Coordinator

Professional Learning and Development

Search no more! Auckland Art Gallery Professional Learning and Development art making courses are now being offered every school holiday.

Learning Through the Creative Process -

WOODCUT PRINTMAKING

APRIL 2013

Eleven teachers participated in our latest PLD art making course on the first Monday of the term 1 holidays. As for the screen printmaking course earlier in the month, we learnt through the creative process. We began by exploring woodcut prints from our collection in the printroom, with Assistant Curator Mathew Norman, then exploring other examples of woodcut prints from our collection in small groups back in the studio.

Some examples of woodcut prints from our collection: 

Crayfish 1953
May Smith
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki



Kingfishers 1953
Robert Gibbings
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki



Philip Clairmont: Tribute 1984
Nigel Brown
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki



Kowhai 1930s
John Moore
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

We experimented with woodcut tools and techniques to create a variety of styles and effects, explored and experimented with a selection of design ideas (pattern, animals, text, shapes, portraits, etc) and finally created a design and then a woodcut block for printing.

We inked up the printing blocks, experimenting with colour mixing and texture.

We shared our design ideas, use of colour and cutting techniques.

Some of the work produced:

At the conclusion of the course we discussed:

• how we could implement these new skills and processes in our own classrooms
• how we would adapt the materials, skills and techniques to suit the age level and needs of the children we teach?

How would you teach this process in your classroom?

Useful links:

• Read our blog from the Auckland Art Gallery screen printing course
• View woodcut prints in our collection
• Learn about woodcut tools and where to get them
• Another blog, outlining the woodcut printmaking process

Next PLD at Auckland Art Gallery is Learning Through the Creative Process - LINOCUT printmaking on Monday 15th July

Professional Learning and Development

Learning Through the Creative Process - SCREEN PRINTMAKING.

Professional Learning and Development for teachers has started up again at Auckland Art Gallery!

Learning through the creative process we explored examples of screen prints in the collection, experimented with techniques and styles, created paper and fabric screen prints and then shared ways these techniques could be implemented successfully in our classrooms. Junior and intermediate teachers and a teacher of students with special needs participated enthusiastically in a busy 5 hour session - so enthusiastically nobody wanted to stop for lunch!

We began by exploring the Auckland Art Gallery Print Room with Assistant Curator Mathew Norman. Mathew showed four different examples of screen prints from our collection and spoke about the time they were made, the  techniques used and the style of the work.

Mathew explained the use of the room, the storage of artworks on paper and the precise conditions that need to be maintained in the space to ensure the artworks would be safe and well preserved for the future.

Back in the studio, we explored other screen prints on paper and fabric from our collection. In groups, we tried to work out the process. How had these works been made? What would need to have been considered? How has colour been used?

Focusing on screen printing on paper, we discussed possible backgounds for the print such as collage, paint, sprayed dye, brushed on dye or coloured inks. We then experimented with different designs, materials and techniques to create a backgound on paper and a design to go on top. The designs were photocopied and made into a number of different stencils.

Some problems needed to be solved before moving to the next stage!

Then the screen printing on paper creating began!

Followed by screen printing on fabric.



Finally, we came together and shared our reactions to the process, how we learnt through the creative process, how we problem solved, made modifications and refined our ideas. This lead to great discussion on exactly how we could follow this process and teach screen printing in our own classrooms.

Feedback from the teachers:

• 'A wonderful environment to create without the fear of failure. A perfect mix of talking and sharing paired with creating, exploring and experimenting. A fabulous day that seemed to zoom through - a great example of a fun day!'  Year 1 classroom teacher.
• 'The content was awesome! I've gathered many ideas to use in class. I enjoyed being allowed to work at my own pace and problem solve my own artwork.'  Intermediate art specialist teacher.
• 'I achieved my goals. Great facilitator, very welcoming and plenty of opportunity to explore. I will definitely build these techniques into term 2 and 3 planning.' Teacher of 5-21 year old children with special needs.

How have you implemented screen print making in your classroom?

Useful links:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogKeYH2wEE

Find out how silk screens are made and watch a number of different screen printing processes.

www.visual-arts-cork.com/printmaking/screen-printing.htm

The process and history of screen printing. Famous screen print artists.