visual Arts Advocacy

As teachers, schools, and educational bodies alike negotiate new approaches and challenges to learning in 21st-century contexts, growing is the understanding that an education rich in the arts is integral to the success and development of young minds. Professed as the “generator of change” (Enoch, 2009, as cited in Ewing, 2011, p.2), the arts embody a valuable relationship with learning that enables students to explore important connections with identity, creativity, and expression, while simultaneously providing students with the tools to become successful individuals within society (Ewing, 2011, p.2). 

 According to Wyn and Wyszomirski (as cited in Ewing, 2011, p.2-9), arts-based skills such as creative thinking, innovation, and problem-solving are ‘must haves’ when stepping into modern living and are extensively valued in multiple avenues of work. These particular skill sets developed through arts education are considered to be “necessary for many vocations in diverse industries” (ACARA, 2011, p.25) and often provide varying professional realms with specialists that have extensive creative and technical capacities.

As outlined in the Australian Curriculum, visual arts are conceptualised as an expansive subject area where students learn to communicate, challenge, and express their ideas through the position of both artist and audience (ACARA, 2010). Through working with “visual techniques, technologies, … and processes” (ACARA, 2010), students are afforded the opportunity to acknowledge and respond to important art histories, theories, and cultures to develop an understanding of their societal responsibilities and to learn the significance of self-expression through visual arts practice. (ACARA, 2010). Ewing (2011, p.1) contends that involvement in such creative processes can “improve an individual’s enjoyment” in school and positively direct their sense of identity, self-confidence, and well-being. The visual arts curriculum is aligned with the overarching aims of Australian education outlined in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration, where highlighted is the goal that “all young Australians become confident and creative individuals, successful lifelong learners, [and] active and informed members of the community" (COAG Education Council, 2019).