of 5
8/3/2019 VADEA newsletter Issue Twenty Three
1/5
p
A REVIEW BYVADEA CO PRESIDENT DR KAREN MARAS
THE CONTENT OF THIS REPORT IS ENDORSED BY
MARIAN STRONG, ART EDUCATION AUSTRALIA
(AEA) AND TAMARA WINIKOFF NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS(NAVA).
Convened by Visual Arts educators from the National
Gallery Australia, National Portrait Gallery and Art
Education Australia, this conference took up the
theme of space in relation to inclusion, renewal,
growth and experimentation to engage a variety of
issues in Visual Arts education. Highlights of the
program included:
discussion of the Australian Curriculum for the
Arts
keynotes by a range of local and international
contemporary artists and art educators
showcases of partnerships between galleries,
museums, art practitioners, schools and
professional associations
recent research on areas including teaching
practice, conceptual development, artist in
residence programs and Indigenous art
programs in schools
exhibitions including Renaissance: 15th and
16th
century Italian paintings from the
Accedemia Carrrara, Bergamo (NGA),
Impressions: Painting life and light (NPG).
Special Report: The Arts in the Australian
Curriculum: Space For All.
This plenary session involved a panel of four
presenters who offered a range of perspectives on
the Arts in the Australian Curriculum. A brief outline
of their comments follows.
Tamara Winikoff, Executive Director of the
National Association for the Visual Arts explored
the relationship of the curriculum to the longevity and
health of the place of artists in education and
Australian culture. In particular she noted the need to
address not only the curriculum, but also teacher
education and resources, well designed learning
spaces, artists in schools and the contribution of art
galleries which would support a high quality visual
education for all. Additionally, Ms Winikoff argued thatwe need in depth aspirational and inspiring curriculum
content that would enable teachers to appropriately
prepare all students to be visually competent
throughout their future lives.
Dr Wesley Imms, Lecturer in Visual Art Education,
University of Melbourne raised issues of how a
curriculum provides a space for guiding teachers to
address key content. Using the metaphor of architecture
he noted that a feature of art and art education is the
diversity of practices we deal with and how we all
inhabit different spaces. He noted that curriculum
supports Visual Arts teachers to make appropriate
decisions for the needs of all learners in different places
and spaces.
Professor Graeme Sullivan, formerly of COFA and
now Director of the School of Visual Arts at
Pennsylvania State University, Ohio offered some
comments about the frequency of attempts to overhaul
art curricula in Australia. He noted the similarity of the
current proposals to those of the previous unsuccessful
attempts to nationalise the art curriculum in Australia
during the 1990s. Professor Sullivan also drew attention
to the need for art educators and professional art
education associations to involve themselves in such
conversations.
NATIONAL VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION CONFERENCE - CANBERRA, 22, 24, 25 JANUARY
10 February 2011 VADEA E-BULLETIN Vol. 23
Page 1
8/3/2019 VADEA newsletter Issue Twenty Three
2/5
Professor Barry McGaw, Chair of the Board of the
Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority
(ACARA) concluded the presentations with an
overview of the national curriculum development
process from the Melbourne Declaration of
Educational Goals for Young Australians (2008)
through to the development of the Shape Paper for the
Arts in 2011. Professor McGaw informed delegates
that following consultation on the Draft Shape Paper
ACARA had taken the following decisions:
separate curricula for each art form will be
developed
at least one or more artforms will be studied in
years 7-8, with elective studies available in
year 9-10.
all artforms will be studied in F-6
Teachers were encouraged to read the revised
version of the Shape of the Arts in the
Australian Curriculum available on the ACARA
website: http://www.acara.edu.au/arts.html
Professor McGaw also advised that the scope and
sequence statements for the Arts curriculum were
currently being written for each artform and will be
available for consultation in February 2012. While the
scope of this consultation was not clear, Professor
McGaw acknowledged the contributions many arts
educators had already made to the development of the
curriculum. The final curriculum will be available inNovember 2012.
An initial question to the panel from Dr Karen Maras,
Co-President of the Visual Arts and Design
Educators Association NSW, addressed the issue of
how ACARA would ensure that the curriculum for
Visual Arts would be equal to or better than what
was currently in place. In response Professor
McGaw explained:
that ACARAs mandate was for specifying
content only and pedagogical practice and
curriculum time were matters for teachers within
jurisdictions.
a light curriculum would guide teachers in
implementing the curriculum in each jurisdiction.
online provision of the curriculum would ensure
all teachers and parents in Australia have
access to the content specified for students F-
12.
Professor McGaw made particular mention of the
approach taken by the Board of Studies NSW in
developing new curricula in which national curriculum
content was included in greater detail.
Teachers also raised questions about the issue of
curriculum time for Visual Arts. Professor McGaw
clarified that mandated hours of study are
jurisdictional concerns. He explained that ACARA
provides a notion of time to the writers as a means for
providing quantitative constraints on the size of the
document, however, these constraints were not to be
indicative of instructional time. The issue of defining
how time is represented in curriculum development
took up considerable time in discussions. Professor
McGaw also reiterated support for the integration of
art learning within other areas of the curriculum as a
means of maximizing curriculum time.
In response to a question about the minimum
requirement for study of artforms in years 7and 8
in regional schools and the limitations this would
represent for teachers and students in ensuring a
continuum of learning in both Visual Arts and
Music, Professor McGaw explained that this was
again a matter for jurisdictions to sort out. Others felt
this issue was a matter of concern for the
representation of quality and a sustainable continuum
of learning in Visual Arts in all schools.
10 February 2011 VADEA E-BULLETIN Vol. 23
Page 2
8/3/2019 VADEA newsletter Issue Twenty Three
3/5
Marian Strong, President of Art Education
Australia, asked Professor McGaw to account for
the consistent lack of transparency in ACARAs
processes. Professor McGaw conceded that ACARA
had made mistakes in this regard. Additionally,
questions were also raised about the lack of
appropriate communication with professional bodies.
Ms Strong identified concerns that information about
recent progress on the developing curriculum and
the identity and qualifications of the writer/s had not
been forthcoming from ACARA. Professor McGaw
undertook to follow up this matter.
Minister for School Education, The Hon. Peter
Garrett AM MP reiterated some of this information
in an address on the following day of the
conference. He outlined his achievements in
securing the space for the Arts in the Australian
Curriculum in his former role as Minister for the Arts,
which has continued as a focus in his newer role in
education. Minister Garrett explored the benefits of
art education in encouraging students to attend
school and improve their sense of well-being. He
cited the Songroom Project as an example of how
these outcomes had been achieved through music
education. Minister Garrett also noted the positive
impact of arts learning on those isolated or excluded
in our society such as those in prisons.
Unfortunately there was no time for questions in
which delegates could explore the Governments
commitment to ensuring the intellectual contribution
Visual Arts as a distinctive and rigorous area of
study makes to education and the Australian culture
more broadly.
Share your thoughts/ questions about the
National Arts Education Conference
with VADEA
On behalf of the VADEA Executive we congratulate
Dr Kerry Thomas on her award of Outstanding
Professional Service. VADEA Co President Karen
Profilio accepted the award, on Dr Thomas behalf, at
the Professional Teachers Council NSW awards
evening.
10 February 2011 VADEA E-BULLETIN Vol. 23CONGRATULATIONS
NSW Minister of Education, Adrian Picoli presents the award
to VADEA Co President Karen Profilio. 28th
November 2011.
Also on the night, Dr Karen Maras accepted anacknowledgement on behalf of the Visual Arts & Design
Educators' Association of NSW.
Page 3
mailto:[email protected]8/3/2019 VADEA newsletter Issue Twenty Three
4/5
REVIEW BY AMANDA WEATE
Like the undertow of an unseen silent rip smashing
us onto rocks the Australian Curriculum was an ever
present danger lurking just below the surface of all
presentations and conversations. Clearly Professor
Barry McGaw and Minister for School Education,
The Hon. Peter Garrett AM MP were out to placate
and soothe these recalcitrant visual artists. The
dangers to be navigated include instrumental vs. art
for art's sake advocacy, national vs. state dilemmas,
antecedent time allocations for music and visual arts
in NSW, which are only jurisdictional issues
according to McGaw. If the ACARA project is so
benign, why expend so much time money and energy
on it? A unified opposition appears a way off with Dr
Wesley Imms, (Lecturer in Visual Art Education,
University of Melbourne) getting bogged down in
(mistaken) creativity theory, NAVA (National
Association of Visual Arts) unsure of their brief when
it comes to education. The NSW position was
notably absent from the panel discussion.
Professor Graeme Sullivan added little to the
politics. We did get to see a picture of his mum
though.
Space was chosen as the replacement/ surrogate
for the pie as in, we are lucky to be able to
participate and must accept limited opportunities,
to preserve our place/space in the curriculum. So
whereas in 1993 when we were being told to accept
the pie story, as in, there is only so much pie to go
around, now it is about space. We haven't advanced
from this supplicant's position in over 15 years.
Despite numerous protestations amidst claims to
visuality, social media and other fads and fashions.
Fiona Foley continued the theme of visuality as visibility,
noting the erasure of 3 Unit visual arts a curriculum she
credited as one influence on her career choice of artist.
Christine Nicholls, newly appointed journal editor did her
bit with two fascinating papers arising from her
experiences as Principal of the bilingual school Warlpiri
Lajamanu School. Donna Mathewson Mitchell gave
one of the few properly grounded research papers.
The attitude to research is most vexing. Rather than
approaching research as an objective, disinterested
guide to curriculum, research in the mind of most non-
researchers, appears to serve mythologies as ideology.
The conceptual framework is a truly novel
innovation in NSW syllabi. Supported by a research
practice originating in the 1990s at SAE/COFA, this
work has the potential to shake up the tired old
reprise of process and creativity zombies currentlyoccupying ACARA. Research by Weate, Brown,
Thomas, Maras, amongst others, tackles these old
shibboleths. But it is apparently considered as just one
possibility amongst many, choosing it being optional,
rather than imperative. I am reminded of a voice on the
old syllabus committee, by someone who should have
known better how do I know it is right?
Amanda Weate, is the former Head of the School of Art
Education, University of NSW, College of Fine Arts, she has
been an active and respected participant in curriculum
development at state and national levels for over 30 years.
Page 4
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121728261192109
Website htt ://vadea.or .au/word ress/
Twitter htt s://twitter.com/VADEA NSW
Blog http://vadea.blogspot.com/
10 February 2011 VADEA E-BULLETIN Vol. 23SNAPSHOT FROM NATIONAL VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION CONFERENCE
8/3/2019 VADEA newsletter Issue Twenty Three
5/5
Facebook;http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121728261192109
Website; htt ://vadea.or .au/word ress/
Twitter; https://twitter.com/VADEA_NSW
Blog; http://vadea.blogspot.com/
What: 2012 VADEA Conference, IrresistibleWhen: Friday 18th & Saturday 19th May 2012Where: MCA SydneyGuest Artists include:
Hossein Valamanesh
Lindy Lee Helen Eager
Brook Andrew
Hany Armanious Agatha Gothe-Snape
Keep a look out for a
REGISTRATION FORM
and further details on the
VADEA WEBSITE.
http://vadea.org.au/wordpress/
Book Now
Only 105 DAYSto go!
