Bare Bones Art || Minimal Conditions in Art Classrooms and Strategies to Overcome "Bare Bones Art" - [PDF Document] (2024)

National Art Education Association

Minimal Conditions in Art Classrooms and Strategies to Overcome "Bare Bones Art"Author(s): Zach D. RozelleSource: Art Education, Vol. 47, No. 3, Bare Bones Art (May, 1994), pp. 45-46Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193475 .

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Idefine minimal conditions as circ*mstances that inhibit or limit the potential of an art program, and I consider "bare bones art" to

be a consequence of minimal conditions. Minimal conditions I have encountered include being overwhelmed by responsibility for art programs in multiple buildings, having no art room, sharing a room with other disciplines, too little time with students, too little or no money for consumable supplies (a major contributor to "bare bones art"-my largest consumables budget amounted to $1.00 per student for the entire school year), inadequate non-consumable equipment, inadequate support materials (textbooks, visuals, etc.), program instability, job insecurity. This list is by no means complete.

I propose that wherever minimal conditions prevail, we take steps to ensure that they not be allowed to breed tolerance for reduced student opportunities. Following is a summary of what I have found to be effective strategies for overcoming such conditions and, therefore, ensuring against "bare bones art."

My first step is to identify the specific conditions that inhibit the art program. I have never found this process to be difficult. The kinds of limiting circ*mstances I have encountered have been made obvious by their consequences. Some overt examples include having to plan in accordance with inadequate supplies, feeling stress

Minimal Conditions in Art Classrooms and Strategies to

Overcome "Bare Bones Art"

as a consequence of too much to do in too little time, teaching from an art cart or closet. Once I have targeted the conditions and causes that must be addressed, I apply a bit of borrowed wisdom. I decide which conditions and causes I can readily change and which I cannot readily change, relying on my professional judgment to know the difference. I mentally rank those conditions that can be changed, focusing my efforts on those I can improve and those that will most immediately enhance students' experiences.

Minimal conditions typical of

situations I en- Students with robot counter in art educa- made from materials tion include no class- from the recycling room; shortage of

<,~ ~ storage room consumable sup- plies; no money; op- pressive teaching load (example: one teacher responsible for art programs in two elementaries and a middle school); too little time with students. I categorize these conditions as follows:

Those I can readily change: * Shortage of consumable supplies

and no money. (Of the minimal conditions listed, this one most directly affects students adversely and is the

BY ZACH D. ROZELLE

MAY 1994 / ART EDUCATION

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condition that can be most promptly improved.)

Those I cannot readily change: * No classroom * Oppressive teaching load * Too little time with students The next step is to devise some

strategies for immediate improvement. Following are four of these.

RECYCLE An art room recycling center can

promptly provide wonderful materials. I send a list of desired materials home with students at the beginning of the school year. That's it! Not only do students respond, but parents and even local businesses have involved themselves. I often receive donations or collections of materials that would enhance even the most opulent of programs. Another benefit is the opportunity to engage students in creative thinking as we explore ways to find art related applications for materials that would otherwise be considered waste. In my school, we have made robots from paper cups and tin cans, Christmas trees from milk cartons and scraps of fabric, and molds from plastic lids.

TEACH DISCIPLINE BASED ART EDUCATION

What does discipline based art education have to do with a lack of supplies, you wonder? A program that relies solely or nearly exclusively on studio activities will require a large investment in materials, and will in the end provide an imbalance of art experiences. In a discipline based approach, lessons on aesthetics, criticism, and history can be balanced with studio activities. Not much is really required to provide an effective aesthetics, criticism, or history activity;

those visuals that are needed are free for the borrowing from local libraries, universities, or the education department of a museum.

RAISE MONEY We are professional educators, not

fundraisers. Nonetheless, in instances where the quality of student experiences is limited by inadequate materials, we have an obligation to do what we can. If you operate a recycle center, return the cans for cash. I am often surprised at how many cans students provide, and, with persistence, the cash does accumulate. I have packaged and sold plain note cards decorated with student prints or drawings, and I know of teachers who have raised funds by having auctions of student art work. Means for raising money for supplies are as limitless as your imagination. Doing so is extra work, but the reward is an improved program for students and better classroom conditions for teachers.

APPLY FOR GRANTS This may be one of the most

neglected means of improving programs. Applying for grants involves extra work, but the payoff directly benefits students. I have applied for and received grants that enabled me to substantially upgrade school art programs.

One grant, made available by a local university art museum, enabled me and a fourth grade classroom teacher to work together to integrate art and a unit of social studies. The result was a book which was researched, written, and illustrated by students. This book documents the lives, and social and cultural contributions of three famous

Indiana artists. This past school year, teachers

across the United States were afforded an opportunity to receive a video-disc entitled American Art from the National Gallery ofArt through a video-disc grant competition sponsored by the National Gallery of Art. A brief written proposal was all the investment required. The reward for those awarded this disc is a series of twenty-six hundred pictures of American art and factual information concerning each. An effective art curriculum could be developed in conjunction with this disc alone.

IN CONCLUSION These four strategies cost nothing

but time and can provide some genuine improvement in situations where few supplies and little money is available.

I want to make it clear that I am not suggesting that we acquiesce to any kind of minimal conditions. Where minimal conditions impede quality, we have to make our voices heard. Aggressive advocacy, particularly at local levels, may be our only offense for overcoming the kinds of minimizing conditions categorized on my list as "those I cannot readily change." Politely, but relentlessly, confront in person, by telephone, and by mail those empowered to raise arts education to the same status and level of funding afforded other academic subjects.

Minimal conditions exist and will proliferate as long as we tolerate them. Let us be certain that we do not accept them as justification for fewer student opportunities, or for surrendering our students to consequences such as "bare bones art."

Zach D. Rozelle is an elementary art teacher in the Muncie Community Schools, Muncie, Indiana.

ART EDUCATION / MAY 1994

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