Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art

by Kerry Freedman

Global culture is rapidly shifting from text-based communication to image saturation. Visual culture is on television, in museums, in magazines, in movie theaters, on billboards, on the internet, and in shopping malls. As a result, learning about the complexities of visual culture is becoming ever more critical to human development. This is the first book to focus on teaching visual culture. The author provides the theoretical basis on which to develop a curriculum that lays the groundwork for postmodern art education (K–12 and higher education). Drawing on social, cognitive, and curricular theory foundations, Freedman offers a conceptual framework for teaching the visual arts from a cultural standpoint. Chapters visual culture in a democracy; aesthetics in curriculum; philosophical and historical considerations; recent changes in the field of art history; connections between art, student development, and cognition; interpretation of art inside and outside of school; the role of fine arts in curriculum; technology and teaching; television as the national curriculum; student artistic production and assessment; and much more. “A compelling synthesis of scholarship from a variety of fields….This book successfully blends theory with provocative arts education applications.”
― Doug Blandy , Director, Arts and Administration, Institute for Community Arts Studies, University of Oregon
“ Insightful and well-researched….This book will spark discussion among art educators, serving as a catalyst for change in theory and practice.”
― Mary Ann Stankiewicz , President, National Art Education Association

Genres: Teaching, Art, Education

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

Reviews

[Peaches · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freedman provides her thoughts on how historical movements, advances in media, and perceptions of art have contributed to a visual culture. Moreover, she argues why visual culture and curriculum are continuously tied into education and how students' attention to it can enhance their learning. Unfortunately, she seems to rely heavily on students in art classrooms and analyzing art instead of creating it themselves, which would have been more interesting to read. Especially since she has taught art, I wonder why there was a heavy focus on one area.
Though this was a quick read with many statements that I agreed with, Freedman comes off as a pretentious scholar academic, mentioning multiple times how students need to be guided with those with expertise (i.e. her, I guess) and how their interpretations are severely underdeveloped without probing. Interestingly, this book came out in 2003 before the mass explosion of social media saturation for all levels. Perhaps Freedman is now learning more from her students than anticipated in this book (I hope so).

[Aboadam]

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