Art Appreciation

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1. '"I'm good at art, but stupid" the state of art and design education in the 21st Century', 15 August, 2023. Word count: 790.
2. ‘The State and art & design education in England: Part One, 'Rip-Off Degrees', the poverty of expectations for the discipline and neoliberalism', 19 September, 2023. Word Count: 924.
3. ‘The State and art & design education in England: Part Two, appreciation and the National Curriculum’, 2nd October, 2023. Word Count: 1103.
4. ‘The State and art & design education in England: Part Three, exclusion past, present and future’ January 2024. Word count: 1404.
5. ‘A state of the art creative education? Place-based learning and making, inclusivity and innovation’ January 2024. Word count: 1462.

The Closing of Kunstania is a short tale about art that has been hidden away from its audience in a garden behind high walls. In this refuge, there are neither audio-guides nor art education nor interactive apps. Kunstania reminds us of another possibility to encounter art without mediators, without an aura of masterpieces, and without the promise of an extraordinary event. Instead, a way through a labyrinth of rooms and corridors, where, perhaps, things and tales are stored, but must be found on your own, wandering, returning and recollecting.

The role of indigenous musical performances in traditional festivals has been very significant in the lives of Africans. In Ghana, some of such festivals are pivoted on particular distinctive natures of the indigenous music. One of such musical genres is the Abele music performed by the people of Yeji in the Bono-East region of Ghana. This music is formalized in the context of the Kajoji festival celebrated annually by the community. Through ethnographic research design, the study documents the role of Abele music in the context of the Yeji Kajoji annual festival. The reason is to add to the literature of traditional music scholarship in Ghana while the source materials from the music can be used in the music classroom for music learning. In dealing with the study, participant’s observation and interview were used to collect the needed data. Participants for the study included some purposely selected members of the Abele musical ensemble as well as the paramount chief of the area. I...

There has been a remarkable rise in documentation of festivals in Ghana in recent decades. Specific historical accounts as well as music making activities of some festivals in the Fante communities have not received sufficient scholarly attention, especially, in social and cultural terms. This paper was a qualitative research to document the of Gomoa Fetteh Ahobaa festival: Origin, musical performance and socio-cultural impact geographies of one of the Fante communities; Gomoa Fetteh in terms of its origin, festival, musical performance as well as the socio-cultural impact of the festival on the people. In gathering the data for the study, the chief, chief priest, elders of the chief palace, the musical ensembles as well as a cross section of some citizens were selected. Interview and observation were used to garner the needed data to answer the research questions. Indeed, while the Gomoa people found themselves in the present location from the major Fante ethnic group, their Ahobaa festival is a vehicle of economic generation and development of tourism. Ultimately, celebrating the festival with its enchanting spontaneous music making brings unity and improve their quality of life.

The aim of this article is to analyze the art and research project BeHere/1942 (2022) by the Japanese media artist Masaki Fujihata. The collectively created intermediasystem, which enables viewer participation, refers to a forgotten series of propagandap hotographs documenting the internment of West-Coast Americans of Japanese descent in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles. BeHere/1942 employs creative strategies developed by Fujihata, who is an acclaimed pioneer of the use of augmented reality technology in media art. The project also constitutes a daring form of critique of the dominant media narrative about the historical event. The article examines the forms of experience in which the creators of BeHere/1942 enmesh the viewers. Particular attention is paid to interactivity, a new understanding of historical photography, and the act of photographing as a performance of power.

Recent scientific analysis of two genre paintings by Johannes Vermeer at the National Gallery of Art in Washington (Woman Holding a Balance and A Lady Writing) has uncovered a level of freedom and spontaneity in Vermeer’s preparatory painting stages that was not previously known. Researchers built on decades of research and used a suite of new, noninvasive analytical techniques to image Vermeer’s painted sketch and underpaint—layers hidden below the paintings’ surfaces—more clearly and precisely than was previously possible. Here we analyze and interpret our findings in the context of Vermeer’s career and in relation to works by his peers, high-life Dutch genre painters of the seventeenth century. For further exploration, see “Methodology & Resources,” “Experimentation and Innovation in Vermeer’s Girl with the Red Hat,” and “Vermeer’s Studio and Girl with a Flute” in this issue.

The blocky brushwork and awkwardly positioned figure of Girl with a Flute (National Gallery of Art, Washington) have led many to doubt whether Johannes Vermeer, who painted the superficially similar Girl with the Red Hat (National Gallery of Art, Washington), also made this work. Over the last two years, curators, conservators, and scientists collaborated to resolve the uncertainty surrounding this painting and determined that the painting is not, in fact, by Vermeer. The artist who created this work was intimately familiar with Vermeer’s unique working methods and used the same materials and techniques but was unable to achieve Vermeer’s level of delicacy or expertise—raising the intriguing possibility that Vermeer had associates working with him in his studio.

This study conducted a quantitative analysis by text mining using KH Coder on the effects of TT English classes with JTE and ALTs in junior high school on the causes of improvement/decrease in motivation to learn English among high school students (121 students). The analysis of co-occurrence networks showing the causes of motivation increase/decrease and the timing of their occurrence revealed the characteristic causes for each period. While there were common causes of increased and decreased motivation at each occurrence, the causes affecting each occurrence were different. As for the cause of increased motivation to learn, it became clear that even in TT English classes, which aim to "teach using English," there is a strong awareness of "tests" and "entrance examinations" as career paths in the background. This tendency became more pronounced as the students' grades increased, from the second year of junior high school to the third year of junior high school. In other words, the results indicate that the cause of high school entrance examinations is a significant factor in learners' motivation. As for the cause of low motivation to learn, "I do not understand (English)" was found to be associated with the cause in all the periods. Given the content in the free statements, this is likely due to insufficient understanding of the TT English classes and the difficulty of learning due to the increased complexity of the content. In other words, the sense of alienation in TT English classes for learners who are not good at English is considered a significant factor. This result was revealed by Watanabe (2021), Which complements the results of Watanabe (2021), who found that English teachers' instruction in English did not affect motivation. Considering these results, we believe that this is a result of the adverse effects of "English-based instruction" in TT English classes; it can be said that we need to reconsider how to proceed with TT English classes in the future.

1. Introduction
The 2009 revision of the Guidelines for the Course of Study for Senior High School Students stipulates that all English courses should be taught in English. The 2009 revision of the Guidelines for Teaching English in High Schools established the policy that all English courses "shall be taught in English as the primary language. Since then, teachers have been required to have high English language and operational skills.
The following Courses of Study will require teachers to have a high level of English and English language skills. The following Courses of Study will also implement this policy in junior high schools. This policy will also be implemented in junior high schools, and teachers will be expected to be more proficient in English than ever before. Currently, Japanese junior high schools Currently, a high percentage of Japanese junior high schools in Japan are taught in English by Japanese English Teachers (JTEs), and there are also several JTEs teaching several times a week. In addition, JTEs and Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) teach together several times a week. In addition, the use of "Team Teaching" (from now on referred to as "TT"), in which JTEs and ALTs teach together several times a week, has been promoted. In light of this learning situation, the study by Watanabe et al. (2019) found that the three factors of teachers' English proficiency that did not affect high school students' motivation to learn English, "English-using lessons," "English-teaching skills," and "English-learning skills. In light of this, we asked whether the three factors of teachers' English proficiency that did not affect high school students' motivation to learn English, "English-based teaching," "English language proficiency," and "professional English knowledge," also apply to junior high school English teachers (ALTs and JTEs). We examined the relationship between teachers' English proficiency and students' motivation to learn English by reflecting on their junior high school English classes. The paper investigated the relationship between teachers' English ability and students' motivation to learn English by reflecting on their junior high school English classes.

In this study, a questionnaire was administered to high school students to examine the causes on the part of teachers that influence their motivation to learn English in a previous study (Watanabe, 2011). The factor analysis results revealed that the teacher factors comprised four factors: detailed instruction, coercive attitude, excessive interference, and friendly attitude. Based on the results of the previous study, the effects of the teacher factors 'attentive guidance,' 'coercive attitude,' 'excessive interference' and 'kind attitude' on the student factors 'attitude towards English lessons,' 'attitude towards English learning' and 'effort to learn English' were compared between high and low English ability groups. The results of the two groups of English language proficiency are compared and examined.

This study explores how accompanying text affects the way an individual views and interprets a painting. We randomly assigned participants to view 20 paintings from the classical era with factual information, contextualized background information, or no information displayed next to them. We then recorded their visual gaze using an eye-tracking device and asked them to evaluate the paintings. The results show that how people view a painting and how they evaluate a painting are two distinct cognitive processes. The contextual information serves to orient the viewing process. The accompanying text influences the visual attention and gaze pattern but has limited impact on the hedonic evaluation of paintings. Instead, hedonic evaluation is more of a taste acquired through education and socialization. This study offers an empirical footnote to discussions on the cognitive assumptions in sociological studies of art and cultural phenomena.

Making art and appreciating art are essential human behaviours. As the idiom goes, “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder” we find diverse opinions about art and differences in the experiences elicited through art by individuals. When one perceives art, the close association between sensory and perceptual processing results in aesthetic emotions and aesthetic judgement and helps him/her build meaning. Children’s appreciation of artworks can be categorised into the perceptual level, contextual level and analytical level of appreciation. The objective of the present study is to explore children’s levels of art appreciation. The study is conducted on 60 grade IX children (equal number of boys and girls) in the age group of 13-15 years with no arts education background. They are from rural and urban backgrounds located near Hyderabad in the state of Telangana. Children’s appreciation of artworks is elicited by showing them artworks belonging to three artistic genres: representational, ...

Children feel wonder and excitement while perceiving an artwork and their aesthetic responses are evident through their spontaneous expressions. During this process, children understand multiple interpretations of familiar themes. Children’s descriptions of artworks are categorised into three levels of appreciation namely, perceptual level, contextual level and analytical level. The objective of the present study is to explore children’s appreciation of art. The quantitative study investigates children’s descriptions of artworks at various levels of art appreciation. The study employs sixty grade IX children from the state of Telangana. The sample selected include equal number of boys and girls from rural and urban areas and they are in the age group of 13-15 years. The stimuli used in the study are artworks depicting landscapes selected from three artistic genres of representational, semi-representational and abstract artworks. Images of artworks are presented randomly to children ...