High school graduation is a very important rite of passage. And as an educator, my self-actualization is greatest when I am contributing toward this rite of passage for young people, helping to guide them toward a future adulthood that is happy, responsible, educated, clean, and healthy.

"The arts are an asset to a gentleman's [sic] career." Su Shih's words were as true in medieval China as they are today. With the addition of being an asset to the careers of ladies as well as gentlemen, there are many things arts education can impart to citizens of our age.

Creative risk taking, creative and divergent thinking, judgments based on the critical process, command of the abstract, independent problem solving, experience with a variety of means of expression, recognition of the merits of creations and points of view other than your own, craftsmanship, technique, aesthetics, and divergent communication skills are what the arts have to offer. And when delivered to students with kindness, energy, good humor, zeal, and understanding, the arts can do much to make school a happy and comfortable place where students enjoy focused studies of all areas of human endeavor.

John T. Weller

October 14, 2011

Although I keep abreast of current trends, movements, and advancements in the field of art education I view each afresh through the lens of my own experience, understanding, and independent evaluation. In this way I have always been progressive and avant-garde in my approach to teaching and learning, as befits an artist.

For example, many schools have an International Day, and I have a very international background, but I don’t very enthusiastically endorse International Day. Many teachers believe it is an obviously bad idea to openly eschew any aspect of the canon of widely and commonly accepted contemporary “best” practice. However, particularly at an international school where the students and faculty are from and citizens of many different countries, which is perhaps the most common venue for this activity, International Day essentially means I’m from my country, you’re from your country, other people are from their countries, and those differences – which are national differences – are very important. However, I do not believe nationalism should be assigned this level of importance. In fact, I believe the nation state, which is not a very old institution, will not endure in its present condition. I believe as with its predecessor, empire, the nation state will evolve. I have convinced Meishi International School to change its International Day to an Intercultural Day. And I believe perhaps sooner rather than later the IB will adjust its “international mindedness” requirement, as it has done in changing the focus of “academic honesty” to “academic integrity”.

People from rural environments and people from urban environments can have distinct cultures as can people from the older and younger generations, people in blue- and white-collar professions, people from coastal and inland communities, tall and short people, ugly and beautiful people, et al. There can be meaningful and important cultural differences from household to household within the same community. But these and other factors are often glossed over by teachers who generally privilege time and place – especially nation – and especially within the context of school assignments. In Western national school settings with student bodies comprised totally or predominantly of host country national citizens this may be more likely to be augmented by the foci of Western contemporary identity politics including race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender. But culture is so much more than this.

Let’s look at an example in detail. The Comparative Study external assessment component of the current iteration of the IB Diploma Visual Art curriculum requires students to critically examine at least 3 artworks from at least 2 artists from contrasting cultural contexts. Generally teachers require students to select artists which are from different countries and/or different time periods. Having done this, the requirement is generally thought to have been fulfilled. I am an IB examiner for the Comparative Study component and also a member of the IB DP Visual Art curriculum development focus group, and in 2018 I asked the members of that group to give an example of an occasion where a student had failed to meet this criterion of “contrasting cultural context”. A senior member responded by saying a former student of his had failed to meet the criterion when he compared the work of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. He went on to explain that both of these artists were pop artists, both working in New York City, both in the 1960s, both male, and both white. Genre, place, time, gender, and race.

Warhol desired fame and success, I responded, but he also wanted to explore homosexual and homoerotic themes in his art. However, the cultural environment of New York City in the 1960s was very unfriendly to homosexuality. Therefore in order to achieve fame and success he had to express this thematic material subtly and indirectly.

Case closed?

What of Lichtenstein? He was teaching at Rutgers University, and his work was heavily influenced by abstract expressionism, which was an especial interest of his. However, abstract expressionism was a product of the 1940s and thus an unacceptable focus for a member of the visual art faculty of Rutgers in the 1960s, owing to the culture of American academia post-GI Bill which requires university study to seek out new knowledge and understandings, which is why Howard Singerman in his Art Subjects tells us that although he is a “master” of sculpture he can neither carve stone nor forge steel nor master several traditional skills of the sculptor (Singerman 1999). Therefore, Lichtenstein was forced by the prevailing culture of 1960s American academia to choose between his career and his passion. Were it not for this pressure he would not have made the changes to his oeuvre which culminated in his fame as a pop artist (Collins 2012).

Both artists were obliged by prevailing cultural forces to adjust their art, but to different ends and for very different reasons. Warhol’s homosexuality and its effect on his work should be obvious in 2018. But the exercise requires a deeper look.

And here is a very important question: Are the students identifying these factors in their analysis and relating the results directly to the visual evidence within the examined artworks? And subsequently is this actively informing the student’s own ongoing studio work?

International Day is good because we want children to understand the culture of different countries. Similarly, when students critically examine artworks we should require them to include artwork from a variety of different countries and time periods. “Culture” is about what country you are from, your race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender. All of this is common wisdom. But as an educator I am interested in looking critically at “common wisdom” with fresh, thoughtful, reflective, and independent context and perspective. This is a behavior I model for students whom I encourage to likewise recognize assumptions and respond accordingly.

John T. Weller

April 4, 2020

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Singerman, Howard, Art Subjects, University of California Press, 1999

Collins, Bradford, Pop Art, Phadion Press, 2012