Artistic activities in school as a question and a challenge: dilemmas about the boundaries of art education

Abstract

The current state in the area of visual art creation, characterized by a continuous as well as a radical expansion of its boundaries, sets forth an issue for an analogous diversification in the art teaching field.  Within this context, various questions and proposals are set forth as to the direction that a teaching intervention, able to promote and handle subjectivity, fluidity and relativity in the artistic work, may take. Should we promote a “safe” approach, should the educational condition further “loosen”, or should the cognitive field be radically transformed?  These concerns constitute three essentially different viewpoints, all of which are examined in this article. Within the scope of the approach hereby adopted, a synchronization with artistic reality urges art education towards an exceptionally wide and multifaceted teaching approach, strengthening the need of children to perceive, comprehend, interpret and criticize the variety of visual forms available to them.