Arts Literacy

Chapter 7
Artistic and Creative

Literacy
Objective:
 Characterize artistic literacy

 Discuss the value of Arts to education and
practical life
 Identify approaches to developing/designing
curriculum that cultivates the arts and creativity
 Formulate a personal definition of creativity
 Design creative and innovate classroom
activities for specific topic and grade level of
students
Forms of Art
 Dance
 Music
 Media
 Theater
 Visual Arts
Artistic Literacy requires that you must engage in
artistic creation processes directly through the use
of materials.
Example: Charcoal, Paint, Clay, Musical
instruments, Pen & paper, etc.
Also specific spaces like Concert halls, Stages,
Dance rehearsal spaces, Art Studio and Computer
Labs.
The Arts have been shown to create environments
and conditions that result in improved academic,
social, and behavioral outcomes for students from
early childhood through the early and later years
of schooling.
But due to wide range of art forms it is difficult to
generate findings concerning the strength of
relationships between the arts and learning and
the casual mechanism underpinning these
associations.
The flexibility of the forms comprising the arts position
students to embody a range of literate practices to:
 Use their minds in verbal and nonverbal ways.

 Communicate complex ideas in variety of forms.
 Understand worlds, sounds or images.
 Imagine new possibilities
 Persevere to reach goals and make them
happen
Engaging in quality arts education experience
provides students with an outlet for powerful
creative expression, communication, aesthetically
rich understanding and connection to the world
around them. Being able to critically read, write
and speak about art should not be the sole
constituting factor for what counts as literacy in
the Arts. (Stienfield, 2015)
The cultivation of imagination and creativity and
the formation of deeper theory surrounding
multimodality and multi-literacies in the Arts are
paramount.
Eliot Eisnet posited valuable lessons or benefits, that
education can learn from arts and he summarized
these into eight as follows;
1. Forms and content cannot be separated. How

something done shapes the content of
experience.
2. Everything interacts there is no content without
form and no form without content.
3. Nuance matters. To the extent to which
teaching is an art, attention to nuance is
critical.
4. Surprise is not be seen as and intruder in the
process of inquiry, but as a part of the rewards one
reap when working artistically
5. Slowing down perception is the most promising
way to see what is actually there.
6. The limits of language are not the limits of
cognition.
7. Somatic experience is one of the most
important indicators that someone has gotten it
right.
8. Open-ended tasks permit the exercise of
imagination, and an exercise of the imagination is
one of the most important of human aptitudes.
Characterizing Artistically Literate Individuals
 Use a variety of artistic media, symbols and

metaphors to communicate their own ideas an
respond to the artistic communication of others
 Develop creative personal realization in at least
one art form in who they continue active
involvement as an adult
 Cultivate culture, history, and other connections
through diverse forms and genres of artwork.
 Find joy, inspiration, peace, intellectual
stimulation, and meaning when they participate
in the arts.
 Seek artistic experiences and support the arts in
their communities.
Issues in Teaching Art
Sir Ken Robinson (Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2006

; How to Escape Educations Death Valley?, 2013)
says that schools are making a mistake by
prioritizing subjects like Math and others. Art is
being neglected and the students capacity to
be creative thus preventing them from coming
up with new ideas. Robinson challenged
educators to;
 Educate the well-being of learners and shift
from the conventional learnings towards
academic ability alone;
 Give equal weight to the arts, the humanities,
and to physical education.
 Facilitate learning and work towards stimulating
curiosity among learners.
 Awaken and develop powers of creativity
among learners.
 View intelligence as diverse, dynamic and
distinct, contrary to common belief that it should
be academic ability-geared.
Authors (McArdle and Wright, Dourish 2001, and
Anderson 2003) proposed four essential
components to developing or designing curriculum
that cultivates students artistic and creative literacy.
 Imagination and preference, fantasy and
metaphor
A creative curriculum will not simply allow, but will
actively support, play and playfulness.
 Active menu to meaning making
In a classroom where children can choose to
draw, write, paint, or play in the way that suits their
purpose or mood, literacy, learning and arts
learning will inform and support each other
 Intentional, holistic teaching
A creative curriculum requires a creative teacher
who understands the creative processes and
purposefully supports learners in their experiences.
 Co-player, co- artist
Educators must be reminded of the importance of
understanding children as current citizens, with
capacities and capabilities in the here and now.
Fin

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Chapter 7

Artistic and Creative

 Characterize artistic literacy

 Use their minds in verbal and nonverbal ways.

1. Forms and content cannot be separated. How

 Use a variety of artistic media, symbols and

Sir Ken Robinson (Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2006

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