Visual learning in the community school Art is all about looking: drawing and detail Shirley Brice Heath and Shelby Wolf
Learning for Creative Futures The series Visual learning in the community school tells some of the many stories of partnerships that have increased school children’s access to creative learning opportunities in 2003 and 2004. Oral language, visual literacies and strategic thinking were the focus of the research on which this series of booklets is based. The on-going study results from the collaboration of Creative Partnerships and scholars Shirley Brice Heath and Shelby Wolf, supported through Stanford University and Brown University. Visual learning in the community school Art is all about looking: drawing and detail
Shirley Brice Heath and Shelby Wolf PUBLISHED BY CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS Visual learning in the community school narrates one year 14 Great Peter Street (2003-2004) in which several types of creative bridging and London SW1P 3NQ partnering took place within Hythe Community School in Hythe, Phone: +44 (0) 20 7973 5133 Kent. Behind these links were the inspiration and support of Email: [email protected] Textphone: +44 (0) 20 7973 6564 Creative Partnerships. Central roles in this tale are played by www.creative-partnerships.com visual artist Roy Smith and architectural designer Ben Kelly. For additional copies of this publication, As resident artist, Roy Smith spent one day a week at Hythe please email [email protected] Community School during the academic year. Ben Kelly and Charity registration no. 1036 733 members of his design team worked together with the children to design the reception area of the new school building. But this © Shirley Brice Heath and Shelby Wolf This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception narrative is also decidedly shaped by the play, faith, humour, and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing curiosity, and tenacity of many more characters. The children agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place take on new roles beyond that of pupil as they enact, remember, without the written permission of Shirley Brice Heath and and promote their triumphs and set-backs. They do so in the Shelby Wolf and Creative Partnerships. company of teachers, parents, administrators, and community supporters, who delight in asking questions rather than giving First published 2004 Printed in the United Kingdom answers. The storytellers are Shelby Wolf and Shirley Brice Heath who added their questions in order to capture, count, and recount Shirley Brice Heath and Shelby Wolf the language and thinking behind creative work and play. Here the Visual learning in the community school two researchers tell of the shifts in language and ways of thinking Includes five booklets in slipcase: that lie behind the sustained power of creative learning that holds – Art is all about looking: drawing and detail out new roles for all partners. Each of the five booklets within – Hoping for accidents: media and technique – With an eye on design: the power of presentation Visual learning in the community school takes readers behind the – It looks to me as if: talking about picture books relationships, risks, and probabilities of the many adventures – Sharing a common vision: community learning for possible in Learning for Creative Futures. community futures
Includes bibliographical references. 240 pages.
ISBN 0-7287-1036 6 (pbk) “Ayoungster drawing is a youngster thinking... When will we know that?”
William Carlos Williams—poet, All too often, children are denied physician, and artist—often took artistic opportunities, through a art materials to young patients on stronger focus on “traditionally his house calls. His friend and academic” subjects and with apprentice, Robert Coles explained: inevitable budget cuts. Indeed, as the report All Our Futures: [Williams] was endlessly Creativity, Culture, & Education intrigued by what children could warned: “current priorities and accomplish with crayons or pressures in education inhibit the paints, and he believed that all of creative abilities of young people us, parents and teachers, might and of those who teach them. learn from what boys and girls There is a particular concern about have to “say” as they struggle to the place and status of the arts and create images, to present humanities” (NACCCE, 1999, p. 8). scenes, on paper. “Look at them, looking,” he once urged me as Many would argue that a curricular we watched some children focus on creativity—particularly draw—and then he added, “their the visual arts—is only an aside to eyes meeting the world.” He the essentials of literacy and wished that schools, especially, numeracy, and worse, only child’s would take the child as artist play. Yet, we believe that children’s more seriously: “A youngster involvement in the arts is cognitive drawing is a youngster thinking... work—a clear activation of the When will we know that?” mind as children learn to look at (1992, p. I). art, engage with materials, and craft as well as reflect on their own Williams’ question still hangs in creations. David Perkins (1994) the air in most educational argues that children engaged in settings—a hollow echo in the halls art develop “thinking dispositions” of bureaucracies where decisions and that “art provides a context about the structure of young especially well suited for… helping children’s school days are made. learners mobilize their mental
4 5 7
powers” (p. 4). Drawing is thinking, everyday event at Hythe, Roy and it’s time we knew that. comes once a week and works with small groups of children in One place that clearly understands sessions that run throughout the the role of the arts in children’s day. His art lessons focus on the cognition is Hythe Community need for developing an eye for School in Kent. Pressed up against detail, often through the use of a stony stretch of beach along the props. He helps children learn to English Channel, the town of draw with accuracy as well as Hythe was one of the original imagination to capture the Cinque Ports designated to defend emotional heart of their art. This the English coastline as well as booklet describes Roy’s emphasis supply ships and men for the on drawing and detail, and it Crown. But over the years the demonstrates the power of art in once bustling harbour silted up, children’s thinking as they attend making it impossible for large ship more closely to and create the use, and the small boat sitting up world around them (Anning & high and dry in the front yard of the Ring, 2004). school is a reminder of those long- lost shipping days. Still, in the early morning light, when the youngest children of Hythe sail into school, nothing seems in the least bit lost.
Indeed, working in collaboration with Creative Partnerships, Hythe has committed to a year-long project, inviting local artist Roy Smith to work with their Reception, Year One, and Year Two children to help them learn even more about art. Although art is an
6 7 The more young children develop the ability to focus on the details they see, the greater their capacity for metaphorical language.
With an eye for detail
Before we begin the story of Roy navigating problems in the world. and the young children of Hythe The first of these advantages Community School, it is useful to comes through the movement of acknowledge what those who mental processes back and forth study the brain and the human from the visual to the verbal. The powers of learning tell us about more young children develop the seeing, especially about ability to focus on the details they developing what is sometimes see, the greater their capacity for called “deep sight.” Eric Booth metaphorical language. Metaphor (1999) is a teacher, artist, and is a manifestation of the human thinker who writes about “the capacity to perceive things everyday work of art.” He has and communicate about things particularly explored the effects as other than they first—or of guiding the looking and seeing superficially—appear of young children as they work in (Winner, 1988). the arts. He wants the young to learn to focus on visual details in Every verbal metaphor depends order to push their creative and on linking key traits or features of critical thinking. one situation or item to another. Often it is only a slight movement Several long-term advantages or swirl or the particular alignment come from steady attention to of bubbles that gives us the power helping young children see, relate, to name one thing as another. The compare, and remember details. leaf of a tree becomes a triangle to All of these are, to be sure, at the a child who sees sharp points and heart of all the arts, whether verbal, names the leaf a triangle.Very visual, musical, or in dance, and young children tend to make their they also provide the foundations earliest metaphors on the basis for learning in the sciences and of shape comparisons, but later
9 Children who learn very early to note details are beginning to practise vital habits of mind.
they see more deeply into internal fundamental principle applies in captures an additional advantage components or non-surface the sciences, everyday problem- of seeing details. With apologies features, such as general solving, and spatial navigation for the male focus within the structural similarities. Witha family within the world. Managers and maxim, we note its value: “Man is member, a two-year-old reads a musicians, plumbers and painters, most nearly himself when he book whose cover portrays a engineers and videographers achieves the seriousness of a mother holding her baby close; the become successful largely child at play.” Watch children book’s content is about “I love through their ability to see beyond deeply immersed in play, whether you.” Months later, the child sees a small details into the larger picture. alone or with others, and we see book cover showing a large bear Children who learn very early to their very seriousness focuses the holding a baby bear in her lap, and note details within their context details of what they are creating. the child announces “This book is and to think about these in the Whether in the high degree of love.” Thus, the child holds deep structuring of something much specificity in their rules (“No, not within memory both details and the greater are beginning to practise that tree, but this one over here”) general structuring of the mother- vital habits of mind. or in their choice of costume, prop, mind. Interruption by an outsider child theme in ways far too or use of space, children care announces to them that they are complex for us as adults to predict Heraclitus, an early Greek about the bits and pieces that not in control and that play is not or identify specifically. philosopher, created a maxim that amount to the whole they see in serious to everyone else. Thus, their play (Wolf & Heath, 1992). the investment in thinking about Learning to see details also Pattern and beauty, cohesion and detail in self-constructed play brings the capacity to see the big connection, and details that seem matters to young children, and picture—to relate the bits and to be inserted simply for their own Heraclitus reminds us that play pieces to what will become a larger sake make up children’s play. should matter to all of us whole. As children create visual Every parent knows the resistance throughout our lives. arts, construct musical children mount when their play is compositions, or develop a dance interrupted. Scientists have Finally, seeing detail calls for visual together, they focus on the tiny speculated that when children focus—sustaining the eyes on a details of movement and play, they build within their minds a space for more than a few coordination. In doing so, they scenario of what is to be, and they milliseconds. The area of the brain know that these parts add up to see themselves in control of the dedicated to visual focus lies at the a whole—something larger than accumulation of details and rules very centre of the various sections the sum of the parts. This that make up the play they have in given over to vision. Focus
10 11 As young children work in creating art 13 – regardless of form or medium–they gain practice in holding attention.
matters, because it allows viewers space for sleeping and another. As to look deeply within an object or they grow older, this sensitivity to situation and see detail from line to details of surroundings must be shape and colour to motion (Zeki, guided into sustained looking, 1999). Hence, as young children identifying meaningful details, and work in creating art—regardless of detecting differences and form or medium—they gain similarities. Otherwise, their practice in holding attention on a original gift of discerning vision sphere of action or range of space. would drive them mad. They need In doing so, they take in the guided looking, so as to sort out fundamental elements or building the details that convey meaning blocks of the world around them. from those that do not. It is not They gain inner vision. This ability necessary—indeed it may be to focus and see deeply and infer damaging—to notice the fine hairs meaning develops in even very about one’s mother’s lips and point young children for both the these out. Far more significant to inanimate and animate aspects of human relationships is detection of the world about them. Babies can a questioning brow or tearful eye, detect facial details that portray a grimace or an amused grin. anger, joy, pleasure, and disappointment. Similarly, they Now let us move in close to watch know the difference between one and listen to Roy Smith—artist in residence at Hythe— working with young children at a Year One art table. We see and thereby can know much more than may appear in the chaos of eager five-year- olds gathering to work with Roy, settling in their seats, waving their hands, clamouring for attention, and toying with the jumble of materials—pencils, paper, and
12 13 books—that make up the content draw, and his resulting first-effort of just one session. portrait showed much more precision than his peers. His Roy explained that this day’s eyes were particularly precise, session would be devoted to highlighting the web of lines in the portraits. He and the children first iris and his own set of long lashes. discussed three famous portraits Roy praised his eye for detail, and by Van Gogh, Manet, and his compliments sent many of the Leonardo da Vinci. Then Roy other children back to their mirrors handed each of the children a to have another look and add more small mirror and encouraged them to their own portraits. to look closely at themselves while they drew. His emphasis on After this initial self-portrait—done looking is a constant feature of his with little instruction other than to teaching, for he finds that pupils look and look again—Roy drew a are all too often eager to “fill in portrait of a face bit by bit, missing details with their mind’s demonstrating to the children that eye; their idea of complete” rather the head was really a long oval, than looking more closely at the not a circle, and that the mouth reality of their reflection or the had more shape than the smiling object in front of them. lines they typically drew. As he drew each part of the face, he Even with the mirrors in hand, asked the children to follow his several children took a quick movements, and they discussed glance at their faces and then each feature in turn. He paid proceeded to draw, eyes down on special attention to the eyes and pencil and paper. But one boy, was able to highlight Matthew’s Matthew, studied his reflection with discovery of the lines of the iris to care, holding the mirror closer and add even more detail. closer to his eyes, staring intently into the glass. He would look and Roy: Now, the next thing to do is Caption here then draw, look and draw, look and draw the eyes. Now, are my
14 15 Roy’s talk is filled with reminders to look – in the mirror, at each other and at his face as well.
eyes on the top of my head? blue eyes out there. Now, inside that, draw some lines. That’s it. another lesson on drawing, Roy Children: [Giggling.] No! They’re the eye, if you look at the person Perfect! encouraged a group of Year Two down there. next to you, there’s a black bit. children to look carefully at the Roy: They’re down here. If I There’s a black circle. Can you Roy’s talk is filled with reminders to fruits and vegetables he had measure it on my face, they’re see the black circle in my eye? look—in the mirror, at each other, spilled out in the middle of their art about halfway. So halfway down Can you see the black circle in and at his face as well. His talk is table. Again, the children gave a my face is where I draw my eyes yours? [The children look deeply marked by visual vocabulary, quick glance and set to their And we’ll draw them as long into each other’s eyes.] Let’s which calls the children to see drawing of shapes outlined by squashed circles called ovals. draw that black circle in there. comparable shapes.These visual memory rather than reality. But Now you draw two ovals halfway That’s called the pupil. We can reminders contain vocabulary that through Roy’s constant calls to down the head. Perfect, Louis! make that nice and dark. is particularly image-producing for look and look again, they began Now, they are not circles. Fantastic! Now we saw young children: “squashed ovals,” to attend more closely to the fruit. They’re long oval shapes like earlier that if you look at the eye, “Spiderman’s eyes,” “a bicycle One boy, for example, quickly Spiderman’s eyes in a way, you’ll see that the brown and the wheel,” the “hairy caterpillar,” and drew an oblong shape for a aren’t they? blue have little lines in them. the “skinny banana.” banana and then announced he Connor: Yeah! Matthew showed us. So we can was finished. Roy suggested that Roy: Right. Next thing to do is to draw those little lines in there. It’s Yet, Roy’s emphasis on detail and his “banana could be a little bit draw a circle inside the eye’s a bit like a wheel, isn’t it? A bit visual vocabulary extends far fatter,” and the child drew a second oval, and that’s going to be the like a bicycle wheel. beyond drawing the eye. In version, adding shading along the iris. That’s the part of your eye Louis: Yeah, like my bicycle at home. that has colour. What colour are Roy: Exactly. Next thing to do is to your eyes? draw some really small Charlene: Blue. eyelashes. You can’t do these Roy: Blue, aren’t they? What too big. Now let’s have some colour are my eyes? eyebrows on here. I’ll give you a Children: Green. Greeney grey. choice. You can either do the Brown. skinny banana or you can do the Roy: Browney. Greeney. Funny hairy caterpillar. coloured eyes! You’ve got hazel [He demonstrates the latter.] eyes, haven’t you? Rea: That looks like an old man! Connor: Mine are blue. Look! Roy: Or you could do the skinny Roy: And yours are blue. Lots of banana. And over the top of
16 17 side as well as dots for the more spaces. Have you been smattering of detail in the seeds kids normally say that they can’t markings of the fruit. Another boy looking at the pineapple? Have and in the shading of the draw, it’s usually because they began to work quickly and Roy you stopped looking at it? Keep on surrounding peel. Roy later haven’t learned the patience to reminded him, “Jacob, you’re not looking at that pineapple.” explained: “Looking at the way be able to look. Once they can looking. Copy the dots [on the Kallam tried to finish up his banana that kids draw and use shading banana] where they are.” Jacob as if art were a contest of speed. and tone, we’ve got two completely picked up his banana and started “Okay, I’ve done it!” he shouted. different ones here. Emma’s is to look more carefully before Still, Roy suggested that he look really, really expressive and it’s applying the dots, instead of just again, “What I can see are all actually quite incredible randomly poking at his paper. these lines and ridges like bones.” for a 7-year-old to be able to use When still another child cried, “I’m With the visual vocabulary— “lines shade like this.” He turned to done,” Roy replied, “Yeah. Now, and ridges”— and the added thrill Aaron’s orange and continued, what about that shading we talked of the word “bones,” Kallam about? Look to see where it’s refocused his gaze on his banana, This is much more typical of the darkest and it’s lightest. and the end result brought much age group really. Where they He held the pineapple up to the praise from Roy: “Look at your want to draw something very, light and asked, “How are you shading. That’s fantastic! Art is all very quickly. But there are do that, then there’s no problem going to handle these diamonds about looking. About looking very elements where he really looked with it really. It’s like when kids do in here?” The child began to draw closely. If you can see it, then you closely. So the observation’s portraits. And they don’t want to diamonds within his pineapple can draw it.” starting, and then things just get do a portrait because they think it shape, but quickly ran out of better and better as far as doesn’t look like the person that steam. “I can’t fit more diamonds Two other children, Emma and drawing is concerned. When they’re trying to draw. So they in,” he complained. Roy countered, Aaron, took very different never, ever do it again. And the “I think you can! I can see some approaches to their drawings. important thing is not whether it Emma’s pepper was quite looks like the person, but detailed—crosshatched all over to whether you’ve looked and seen capture “the wobbly pepper” that the eyelashes are down shape and with an added there, and the shape of the nose, dimensionality to it that made it and the features. Observation is look ready to wobble off the paper. the important thing, and the rest On the other hand, Aaron’s orange of it comes later. was a quicker sketch, with just a
18 19 “... the more difficult it is to draw, the better your drawing will be.”
Upping the power of observation through props
Roy helped intensify the children’s famous artists before they began power of observation through the their own efforts. For example, the use of props.The mirrors helped Year Two children examined some to see more than they several paintings of Claude usually might.The sheer variety of Monet’s waterlilies before they fruit on the table provided choice drew their own egg-shaped lily as well as challenge, as he pads. And Roy showed them a prompted the children to choose range of artists including Chagall, pieces that might prove more Klee, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Van difficult to draw. When the children Gogh, Manet, Matisse, Picasso, were first presented with the fruit and da Vinci, each representing and vegetables, for example, they specific artistic techniques that he started to select the simplest wanted the children to try. pieces. Roy, however, chose the pepper and said, “I think it’s a With his strong emphasis on fantastic shape, and I’m surprised drawing before engaging in other that nobody chose the pepper. But media, Roy also used props much I can understand it, because it more familiar to the children than looks very hard to draw. But the the work of classic artists. For more difficult it is to draw, the better example, working with the four- your drawing will be.” He showed year-olds in the Reception them the grapefruit, which he classes, Roy asked them first to had decided not to include as draw a figure of a person; for this a prop because if they drew it, task, he gave no specific “it would just look like a football.” instructions. Next he provided small models—Spiderman, Action Books on art were constant props, Man, and Barbie—to help the as Roy encouraged the children to children look more carefully at study and discuss the work of proportion, though he admitted
20 21 The power of observation depends not only on looking closely at what you can see, but also realizing what you can’t.
that including Barbie in a lesson reverse, taking the time to look is on proportion “can be a bit odd!” a critical step. The differences in the children’s before and after drawings were The Reception children’s quite remarkable. developing understanding of proportion is born out in Nikita’s Leanne’s initial figure has all the before and after figures. Like appendages extending directly Leanne, all her stick figure from the head. The fingers are appendages extend directly skeletal, the hair sparse, and the from the face, but Nikita’s face features the simplest circles and dominates the page like a lines. Her second figure—done pumpkin face on Halloween only a few minutes later with the night. In her second figure, aid of an Action Man prop— however, the face takes a more shows Leanne is learning to balanced position. Although look. The eyes have shape and some of the features are include the iris and lashes. The detached from the face—like hair shows a jaunty fringe, and the uplifting hairline and the ears with detailed inner lines free-floating ears—both the have appeared. The mouth is full. eyes and the nose contain Indeed, the entire figure is filled greater detail. Nikita, too, added out, and the fingers in particular a neck, and while there is no have taken on a more realistic trunk, the arms and legs have shape. And you can see Leanne’s moved from simple lines to wider dissatisfaction with the size of the appendages. The fingers on the figure’s arms as she redrew them, left hand are particularly detailed, thickening them with every line. with knuckles no less! Most important is Leanne’s addition of a neck, which gives Roy often provided these “before her figure a better sense of and after” opportunities for human balance. For a child who drawing, allowing the children to writes her name so neatly in draw first from their “mind’s eye”
22 23 1 26 27 and then offering them helpful concentration, giving the Not drawing what you can’t see props to improve on their children confidence that they perceptive powers. As art can draw, and leading them to In a discussion of a Van Gogh self- Though Matthew realized what educator, Jean Morman Unsworth “let their eyes do the drawing” portrait, several Year One children he could and couldn’t see, Ian’s (2001) explains: results in sensitive, perceptive agreed that this was the artist who insistence shows his continued drawings. (p. 6) had cut off his ear. Roy explained dependence on what he could Drawingis first seeing, that this particular portrait was see with his mind’s eye. perception. Very young children But the power of observation done prior to Van Gogh’s self- are unlikely to take notice of the depends not only on looking mutilation, although there were Later when Roy used mirrors subject while drawing and they closely at what you can see, but other portraits that showed the as props to help the Year One have difficulty with proportions. also realizing what you can’t see. artist with a large bandage around children draw their self-portraits, Creating a climate of quiet his head. Because Van Gogh was several of the five-year-olds pictured tilting his head slightly to started to draw their bodies as the left, only one ear was visible in well. Roy asked them to look again the picture, and this positioning in the small squares of glass he’d may have led the children to given them to see if they could believe that the ear was missing: really see their bodies. Several children tipped their mirrors down Roy: Oh, it’s on the other side to view their shoulders, chests, of his head. You can’t see it. and arms. Ian even put his mirror [Roy demonstrated the tilt of under the table to view his legs the artist’s head by turning and feet. Roy laughed, but he slightly away from two boys in reminded them that they had to the group.] Can you see my hold their mirrors up to their faces, ear now? and when they did, it was Ian: Yes! impossible to see the rest of Roy: Can you? Look at me. their figures. Can you see both my ears? Ian: Yes! Knowing what you can and can’t Matthew: No. I can’t! see is critical in drawing. When Ian: Yes, I can! Roy did still life drawings with the Year Two children, he grouped
28 29 several objects on the table—a and the ring. But in her mind’s eye, brick, a jug, a ring, and a ball. Most she pulled them out of their cluster of the six and seven-year-olds and attended to the details of each drew each object individually. object on its own. Some lined them up like ducks in a row. Others distributed the objects On the other hand, Alex took into and added shading, but they still account his view of the grouping. attended to them one at a time. Both ring and ball stand in front, Pointing to Louise’s still life Roy their shapes obscuring parts of the said, “Their drawings may have brick. In addition, the ring and the some texture and detail. And the ball are a bit further down on the objects are close to each other, but surface Alex provided. His jug they’re divorced from each other.” is even further down on the page, From where Louise was sitting not providing a sense of all parts of the objects were visible. dimensionality. Looking at Alex’s closer, and the brick stands at the is where I would want them all to The brick was behind both the ball still life, you know that the jug is back. Hubbard (1989) tells us that get. To see depth and to see one “way to create a sense of things in three dimensions, depth on the page is to have one rather than in terms of two form obstruct our view of part of dimensions and a flat another form” (p. 74). representation of three- dimensional figures on the page. Roy agreed, but he found the use So I’ll try to get them to think of overlap rare among his young about how shading can bring pupils. Alex was one of only three things forward and how your children in the class who used this viewpoint changes depending technique. on where you look. And that if you can’t see something, then They actually saw it in three you don’t have to draw it! dimensions and overlapped and used perspective and depth. It’s lovely what they were doing, and it’s a real surprise. And that
30 31 Seeing through to the emotional heart
Roy began every art session with a Chloe: I think he’s thinking. discussion of professional art. Evie: I don’t know what he’s He would show the children two or thinking of. perhaps three different famous Jade: He’s thinking of someone to works and encourage them to play with. voice their interpretations. What Libby: He’s sad because no one is did they think the piece was about, playing with him. and more important, how did it make them feel? The children, though quite young, were easily able to see the thought Because Roy wanted the children in the statue’s positioning—to see to think about art, Rodin’s The through to the emotional heart of Thinker seemed a particularly the art. They even began to create appropriate choice. In an a narrative around his situation. explanation of his famous bronze, It was not enough that he was Rodin said, “What makes my “alone”; instead, there had to be a Thinker think is that he thinks not reason for his loneliness, such as a only with his brain, with his knitted missing playmate. brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every Reception children in other groups muscle of his arms, back and legs, had stories for The Thinker as well, with his clenched fist and gripping and they ranged from rather toes.” When Roy showed the mundane explanations (“He’s Reception children the sculpture, putting his hand on his chin ’cause the four-year-olds held the he’s waiting for a taxi.”) to more following conversation: meaningful explorations of The Thinker’s pain: “He was a daddy, Matthew: It’s a statue. He’s sad and he lost his little girl.” Very ‘cause he’s all alone. few children responded to how
33 “Children can be taught to appreciate the great works of art by talking about them.”
The Thinker made them feel, slipped. He’s sad ‘cause he but Charlotte shared: “I like it. tripped over the shrimps. He looks like a nice man.” He’s lost his daddy. However, a shift in media— Chloe: He’s ripped his T-shirt, and especially the use of colour—and he doesn’t want to be told off. a picture of a boy close to their own Callum:He’s a boy like me. I think age, brought the four-year-olds he’s been hit. closer to connecting with the art. The boy was clearly poor and on Roy showed them The Young his own, but the four-year-olds Beggar by Bartolomé Esteban provided a variety of explanations. Murillo—a 17th century Spanish Perhaps he’d lost his father. painter known for his tender Perhaps he was thinking of all the portrayals of beggars and orphans. things he didn’t possess. Perhaps The Reception children began with he was worried about getting into descriptions of what they saw, trouble over his ripped shirt. though they soon began to make a Perhaps he’d been abused. story of the boy’s situation: Olsen (1992) argues “children can be taught to appreciate the Callum: He’s on the floor. great works of art by talking about Charlotte: I can see worms. them… When young children are Brandon: He’s doing his buttons permitted to become personally up and his clothes are ripped. involved by talking about the Chloe: He looks like my brother. narrative content of a work of art, He’s grumpy. their attention span is amazingly Natasha: He’s sad. He’s not got long” (p. 33). And this was any money ‘cause he’s got certainly true of the Reception no pockets. children as they studied Murillo’s Charlotte: He’s got no shoes. The Young Beggar. He’s thinking about things he wants. When Roy showed this picture to Isaac: Looks like the boy has the Year Two children, the six and
34 seven-year-olds used more child in Murillo’s portrait shows the the downcast head and eyes led to Roy: That’s superb, Deacon! extensive vocabulary to describe clear advantages of discussion their interpretation of his despair. Ellie: He painted himself because the boy’s situation, but their about art. As Fiske (1999) explains Though to one he looked like a he was sad. conclusions were similar: in Champions of Change: The grumpy brother, most others saw Roy: Why do you think he was Impact of the Arts on Learning: an orphan, a beggar, a tortured sad, Ellie? Josh: He’s feeling sleepy and has “Unlike other learning experiences soul, lost in the darkness with no Ellie: He doesn’t feel very well. no food. He’s lost. that seek right or wrong answers, parent to guide him. Roy: Ah! And what colour do you Sophie: He’s dying ‘cause he has engagement in the arts allows for go when you don’t feel very well? no food. multiple outcomes…. Effective As the children talked more and Chorus: Blue or green! Connor: He’s got no shoes. He’s learning in the arts is both complex more about art, they learned that Roy: Greeney-blue. Yeah! Well, is left on his own with no mum and multi-dimensional” (p. xi). artists could feel lost as well, there any other reason why he and dad. Thus, the children were free to particularly when they felt could be sad? What do you think? Ellie: Poor little boy. No mummy or agree and disagree, to build on dissatisfied with their work. When Deacon: He was sad because he daddy in the dark. one another’s ideas, or to put forth Roy showed the children Van thought that he couldn’t do really Josh: He’s poor. He’s a beggar. conjectures based on their own life Gogh’s self portrait, he asked them good painting. When he did Sonny: I think the boy’s getting experiences. if they knew the painter: good painting, he was happy. tortured. He’s an orphan, But when he thought he couldn’t all alone. They looked at the muted tones, Roy: Do you know who it’s by? do good paintings, he felt and though the boy sat in a circle Deacon: Vincent Van Gogh. unhappy. The Year Two children were more of light, they focused instead on Roy: Wow! That’s incredible. able to voice their feelings about the shadow that surrounded him. You’re right, exactly. He wasn’t— The Young Beggar. Ellie said that They noticed the condition of his the word is confident, isn’t it? looking at the picture “makes me clothing—the ripped sleeve, the You know the word confident? feel sad.” Sian explained he was shoeless feet—and knew that the When you can walk down the “upset” for the “lost boy.” Josh said boy was poor and perhaps even street and feel really good. Well, he was “worried for him,” and abused. They studied the scant Van Gogh wasn’t very confident Sonny expressed “pity” for the food on the ground, and while about his work. And it’s true. He tortured orphan. some thought it might have been liked his work, but he wasn’t sure the cause of his stumble, others about other people’s opinions. The children’s willingness to felt it was an indication of how little Deacon: He was sad because he guess, to take risks in nourishment he’d had. They thought he couldn’t do a really interpretation, and to feel for the studied his face, in particular, and good painting of himself, but in
36 37 the end he tried to do it and he calling him “a terrible maddened Drawing as a solid form did it! When he first tried it, it genius, often sublime, sometimes didn’t work, but when he tried it grotesque.” This was the first In his early career as an artist, Van Like make something that you once more, then he did it. published article written about Gogh “focused on drawing, draw look as though it’s rough or Roy: How do you know this? Vincent, who, instead of persuaded that it was the spiky or smooth. It’s hard to get Chorus: Our teacher read the rejoicing, wrote to [his brother] foundation of everything” (p. 36). your head around it. It’s hard to story. Theo, “Please ask M. Aurier not Hythe Community School’s artist in think about it, but you can do it.” Ellie: And we painted sunflowers to write any more articles on my residence, Roy Smith, agrees. as well! painting… it pains me more than Every session, no matter what the He then gathered the children he knows.” But it wasn’t being final media would be, began with around him and drew the skull, The conversation of the children called “maddened” that upset drawing. And as he worked with pointing out that because they with Roy captures the artist’s poor him. Vincent thought Aurier had the children over a period of were standing so close they could health as well as his emotional been too flattering and that others, months, he brought in increasingly see his view: “You need to be able depression about his work. While such as Gauguin, deserved complex props for them to draw. to see my viewpoint. Otherwise Van Gogh was prolific and often more praise (Greenberg & Because he wanted them to draw you won’t understand it.” He inordinately proud of his Jordan, 2001, p. 92). what they saw with “their actual reminded them again of the need paintings—claiming he would be eye rather than their mind’s eye,” to attend: “So I’m looking and famous after his death—he also Thus, the children’s commentary he thought unusual shapes that looking and looking all the time. suffered debilitating days. on Van Gogh’s unhappiness with they had never seen or had seen You look once, you draw once, you Afflicted throughout his life with his work captures the emotional only rarely would help them to look look once, you draw once. That poor health, he worried over the heart of the artist as well as his art. more carefully. way you can start to put in the fact that none of his paintings sold, detail inside. And don’t worry about save one, and that he received Halfway through his year at Hythe, making a mistake. There are no little critical praise. Roy brought in a sheep’s skull for mistakes. But the more you look, the Year Two children. He let them the better you’ll draw.” Still, when compliments came from touch it, moving their hands over a young French critic, Van Gogh the smooth bone, the rough teeth, When the children set to their was devastated: and the fine lines that zigzagged drawing, the differences in their along the seams of the skull. He attention between this session and Aurier wrote a glowing article told the children: “It’s interesting beginning ones were notable. The about him in an avant-garde how you can feel something and children looked and drew, magazine, Mercure de France, then try and draw what you feel. sometimes leaning in closer to
38 39 study a particular detail, and most very normal to me. So which bit of the seven-year-olds drew in do you mean? studied concentration for over 30 Harry: That bit that looks like a dog minutes. Even when Roy began to with its collar. lay out the more eye-catching Roy: Oh! Your picture has turned media—such as fabric paints—to into a new thing. [Regarding go with the next part of the lesson, Harry’s drawing] I can see it. they kept drawing. In earlier Sophie:Or it could be a horse, and sessions, the children leapt on that’s the mane. more colourful materials, eager for Roy: Yes, there’s the big horse’s the paints, the clay, or the tissue head, and there’s the ear and paper for collage. But now they the mane. were so intent on their drawings, Liam: [Pointing to Sophie’s they ignored them. Once after Roy drawing.] That looks like a castle! picked up the skull to comment on Don’t you think so? its features, he placed it back very Sophie:[Tilting her drawing on its carefully. But it wasn’t good side.] No, it looks like a chicken enough for the children. Harry and to me. See! That’s the head and Sophie put their heads together, that’s the tail and that’s the wing. discussing its position to make Roy: Oh, it does. It looks like a big sure it was exact and nudging the fat chicken, doesn’t it? skull back to where they’d last seen it. The shapes the children saw importantly emerged from their While they worked, many children accurate images of the skull. were silent, though some talked as The intricate whirls, forms, edges, they drew about the images they and empty spaces actually lent saw within their drawings: themselves to the imaginative eye.
Roy: What bit are you drawing? Sophie was particularly willing to Harry: That weird bit. voice the images she saw, and her Roy: Your idea of weird might be skull was remarkable in its detail.
41 She was a picture of concentration when she came to the nasal as she drew, her head moving up cavity. She can see what a and down between a thoughtful negative space is and what a gaze on the skull and then on her positive space is, and she’s able art. And Roy was impressed. In an to draw those things. interview following this session with the children, he explained: Roy stressed that children need to see negative spaces like the nasal Sophie’s is just outstanding, and cavity or the eye socket as shapes I would never ever have imagined as well, because they were “just as it. All this is observed, and it’s not important visually as the solid form random in any kind of way. itself. I really want the children to Everything is extremely get to a place where they can look deliberate. She was just so at empty spaces and see a solid accurate and looking really, form.” really intently. And especially
42 43 Summary References
In many ways, Roy’s comment attention span of very young Anning, A., & Ring, K. (2004) Olsen, J. L. (1992). Making sense of children’s drawings Envisioning writing: Toward an serves as a metaphor for validating children. Their shifts in before and London: Open University Press. integration of drawing and writing. the arts in school, for drawing is a after drawings through the use of Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. solid form, not an empty space. more complicated props and done Booth, E. (1999). For far too long, art in schools has only minutes apart attest to The everyday work of art. Perkins, David N. (1994). been regarded as the extra and children’s willingness to look and Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks. The intelligent eye: Learning often weird bit added when rare look again if given the to think by looking at art. Coles, R. (1992). Los Angeles, CA: The J. Paul Getty Trust. spaces in the traditional curriculum encouragement and again, the Their eyes meeting the world: occurred. But as Roy so accurately chance. The drawings and paintings of children. Rodin, A. (2003). The Thinker. stated, “Your idea of weird might Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved January 4, 2004, be very normal to me.” When will it Children deserve art. Under the from http://www.sculpturegallery.com/ be that art in schools is normal best of circumstances, it builds Fiske, E. (1999). sculpture/the_thinker.html. for all? their cognitive stamina, deepens Champions of change: The impact of the arts on learning. Unsworth, J. M. (2001). their verbal explanations, and Washington, DC: Arts Education Drawing is basic. Art Education: The Hythe Community School has offers multiple opportunities for Partnership & the President’s Committee Journal of the National Art Education taken a chance on art, though that individual as well as thoughtful on the Arts and the Humanities. Association, 54 (6), 6-11. chance has been encouraged and expression. “Look at them supported by Creative looking,” William Carlos Williams Greenberg, J., & Jordan, S. (2001). Winner, E. (1988). Partnerships as well as expanded stated, “Their eyes meeting the Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an artist. The point of words: Children’s New York: Delacorte. understanding of metaphor and irony. through the artistic and world.” With the innovation, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. communicative talent of Roy intention, and invention of art in Hubbard, R. (1989). Smith. And the results are clear. their lives, there’s only one Authors of pictures, draughtsmen of words. Wolf, S. A., & Heath, S. B. (1992). Hythe children, though very young, question remaining: “Is the world Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. The braid of literature: are learning to attend to and ready for them?” Children’s worlds of reading. articulate art—to notice, to discuss, National Advisory Committee on Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Creative and Cultural Education. (1999). to debate, to ponder, and to portray All our futures: Zeki, S. (1999). the emotional heart of art—through Creativity, culture & education. Inner vision: An exploration their drawings. Their attention to Sudbury, Suffolk: Department of of art and the brain. detail runs contrary to established Education and Employment. Oxford: Oxford University Press. and expected notions of the
44 45 Photographs by Gary Browne Creative Partnerships is a national All stories have behind them many other – the opportunity to speak out, listen to www.garybrowne.com government-funded organisation, stories. The tales told in this series are no and respect others, sharing the managed by Arts Council England, exception. Behind Visual learning in the knowledge, skills and understanding Visual artist: Roy Smith committed to the positive development of community school are the people and the we need to live together in harmony [email protected] young people through cultural practice contexts that give the qualities of within the community and creative learning. The aim is to help character, time, setting, and energy to Architectural designer: Ben Kelly Design develop the imaginations and skills of their narratives of creative learning. – and the chance to look carefully, reflect [email protected] young people through meaningful and on what we have learned and see that sustained cultural experiences in the Hythe Community School serves the the world is a very special place. Pictures courtesy of: formal and informal education sectors. seaside community of Hythe in Kent. Page 32: Auguste Rodin, The Thinker Creative Partnerships currently works in The school provides education at the Creative Partnerships Kent is run by a The Bridgeman Art Library 25 areas of England with a range Foundation Stage (Reception Year and small, highly experienced team that has of cultural practitioners, creative nursery children) and Year 1 and Year 2 local, national, and international expertise Page 35: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, industries, businesses, and local ages 4-7 (following the Key Stage 1 in facilitating cultural and educational The Young Beggar government bodies. curriculum). The school shares its site programmes. Team members believe in The Bridgeman Art Library with Hythe Early Years Centre, which providing the highest quality and most Learning for Creative Futures is a series offers full-day and sessional care to challenging arts and cultural experiences Page 37: Vincent Van Gogh, of publications for general, arts practice, children between the ages of 2 and 4 and for young people. To this end, they sought Self Portrait St Remy, Sept 1889 and academic readerships, that portrays follows the Foundation Stage Curriculum. partnerships with The Sorrell Foundation The Bridgeman Art Library . how learning environments engage Recognising the worth of each child and (and thereby Ben Kelly Associates), Roy children and adolescents in sustained teacher, the school seeks to transform Smith, Shelby Wolf, and Shirley Brice Design: Ranch creative work and play. Assuming roles educational standards and raise Heath. The quality of work that has taken and relationships that bring close achievement, through working with other place is the result of an inspired school association with professionals who work educational establishments, parents, and and exemplary practitioners who have in creative industries, young learners the local community. Hythe Community seriously undertaken the challenge of experience the vital mix of imagination, School is a happy, safe and stimulating partnering creatively with teachers, long-term planning, knowledge environment where all members of the children, parents, and community. accumulation, skill development, and community, adults as well as children, are These booklets represent sharing of a informed critique. The international valued as individuals and encouraged to common vision that extends from artist to research team of Learning for Creative work together. This community school administrator, teacher to researcher, Futures includes scholars from the aims to nurture within each person: adult to child. The experiences enjoyed disciplines of anthropology, education, by the children at Hythe are what linguistics, psychology, political science, – a lifelong love of learning Creative Partnerships wants for all and sociology. This international enquiry children and believes is the entitlement network is led by Shirley Brice Heath and – the desire to achieve the very best, to of every child. Shelby Wolf. rise to a challenge and enjoy success
46 47 The research: From the spring of 2003 through the school year 2004, two scholars, Shirley Brice Heath and Shelby Wolf, looked closely at how language, attention, inspiration, and collaboration within Hythe Community School changed through artistic partnership. Their work brought teachers, artists, and students into the research process as questioners, data interpreters, and readers and respondents assessing the results as set forth in this series of booklets. The research upon which Visual learning in the community school is based includes transcripts and fieldnotes recorded and analyzed during the year and reported here through thematic patterns. Academic publications of the Learning for creative futures series will report detailed comparative analyses of language and cognitive development in the context of specific features of creative learning environments.
Shirley Brice Heath, linguistic anthropologist, has studied how different kinds of learning environments support children’s later language development. She takes as her focus within-school creative programmes as well as sustained interactions young people have in their work and play within families, peer relations, and community organisations. She is the author of the classic Ways with words: language, life, and work in communities and classrooms (Cambridge University Press, 1986/1996). Heath has taught at universities throughout the world—most notably Stanford University and Brown University, and currently as Visiting Professor at Kings College, University of London. Of emphasis in her research are the long-term effects of learning in environments heavily dependent on the arts. Within this work, she has given special attention to science and environmental projects, and those that encompass social justice concerns. Her resource guide and prize-winning documentary ArtShow (2000) feature young leaders in four community arts organisations in the United States. www.shirleybriceheath.com
Shelby Wolf, an award-winning teacher and educational scholar, is a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research centres on children’s language and learning through engagement in literature and collaborative as well as creative modes of expression— discussion, writing, the visual arts, and drama. Her most recent book, Interpreting literature with children (Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004), portrays her close work with teachers as co-researchers in the study of children’s literary learning. She has worked within numerous school-change programmes to validate the perspectives of teachers who undertake enquiry into how learning works in their classrooms. She is a senior author of Houghton Mifflin English (2004), a textbook series devoted to helping children improve as writers. With Shirley Brice Heath, she wrote The braid of literature: children’s worlds of reading (Harvard University Press, 1992). http://www.Colorado.edu/education/faculty/shelbywolf.
48 Art is all about looking: drawing and detail explores how children’s language and cognitive abilities develop when they learn to look carefully and draw in detail. Technical vocabulary, types of question and sentence structures develop with increased engagement with materials, art history and comparative work. As they work with visual artist Roy Smith, the children of Hythe Community School begin to acknowledge what they can and cannot see, and to understand that creative art lies as much in the detail as in overall design.
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