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The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Fall 12-2009 In Quest of Walter Smith: The Past, Present, and Future Impact of Visual Art in Adult Education Meredith Amanda Cole University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Adult and Continuing Education Commons, and the Art Education Commons Recommended Citation Cole, Meredith Amanda, "In Quest of Walter Smith: The Past, Present, and Future Impact of Visual Art in Adult Education" (2009). Dissertations. 1077. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/1077 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi IN QUEST OF WALTER SMITH: THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE IMPACT OF VISUAL ART IN ADULT EDUCATION by Meredith Amanda Cole A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: December 2009 COPYRIGHT BY MEREDITH AMANDA COLE 2009 The University of Southern Mississippi IN QUEST OF WALTER SMITH: THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE IMPACT OF VISUAL ART IN ADULT EDUCATION by Meredith Amanda Cole Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2009 ABSTRACT IN QUEST OF WALTER SMITH: THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE IMPACT OF VISUAL ART IN ADULT EDUCATION by Meredith Amanda Cole December 2009 Walter Smith is a relatively unknown historical figure in the art world, but he is essential to defining adult education's past, present, and future in the area of visual art. His artistic endeavors in America sparked facets of the way art education is practiced today. However, along the way we have lost the tenets of social change which he sought but never accomplished. In chapter one, I introduce the purpose of the research. In chapter two, I explain the position Walter Smith entered when coming to America. I also detail Smith's Herculean social reform efforts for adult education and why popular appreciation of what he did was impossible. In chapter three, I analyze the changes in American adult art education inspired by Smith, and the paradigmatic changes in adult art education since Smith up to present-day. In chapter four, I assess documentation of the present situation of adult education in art in the United States. I review the thought process behind what is required in teaching adult students and its current practice. In chapter five, I discuss Paulo Freire's theory of social transformation as a backbone for adult art education within some possible frameworks: CBAE, DBAE, and through the aid of Internet and computer technology. In chapter six, I address the dichotomy that is simultaneously splitting the fields of adult education and adult art education. ii What if imagination and an are not frosting at all but the fountainhead of human experience? What if our logic and science derive from art forms and are fundamentally dependent on them rather than art being merely a decoration for our work when science and logic have produced it? ~ Rollo May 111 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light. ~ Albert Schweitzer A special thanks goes to Dr. Lilian Hill for graciously chairing my dissertation committee; her expertise and advice were very much appreciated. Also, many thanks to my committee members, Dr. Lin Harper, Dr. W. Lee Pierce, and Dr. John Rachal, who have guided and encouraged me through the entire dissertation process. Your unceasing devotion and care to each and every student is awe-inspiring. Thank you for supporting my passion in visual art research in the field of adult education. Thanks to my art professors: Shelbia Hatten, Walter Feldman, and Tony Janello; I have learned to see outside the box and retain my love of art. Their lack of artistic self-importance and many kindnesses are much remembered. Many, many thanks go to my mother, Dr. Kathy Cole, who has been the wind beneath my wings; she never let self-doubt and anxiety steal my dreams. Thanks to my family for their faith in me. Above all thanks to the One who is the ultimate social transformationist. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii PROLOGUE: A POSTMODERN WHIPLASH viii CHAPTER I IN QUEST OF WALTER SMITH 1 Synopsis of Study II PAST: ART AND THE INVISIBLE MAN 9 Walter Smith before America Smith's Beginnings Coming to America Falling out of Favor End of a Movement Smith's influence Summary III PAST: REVIEWING THE PARADIGMATIC CHAOS 61 Onward from the Industrial Art Movement Modern and Postmodern Art Paradigms Summary IV PRESENT: THE ART THAT COULD NOT BE TAUGHT 89 Defining an Adult Adult Education in Art Adult Barriers and Motivations to Learning Current Art Instruction in Adult Education Current Research Summary V FUTURE: RECONSTRUCTION WITH A SOCIAL BACKBONE 129 A Social Theory Backbone Summary v VI IMPLICATIONS FOR ADULT EDUCATION 184 Implications BIBLIOGRAPHY 208 VI LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Aesthetics, Learning Theories, and their Implied Ideologies 72 vn PROLOGUE A POSTMODERN WHIPLASH I first experienced the split between the world of postmodernist-based high art founded on philosophical and intellectual content, and illustrative art. low art as a craft based on technical design skills, while working for my bachelor's degree in visual art at a private liberal arts university, at an art and design school, and while working on my master's degree in art education research at a public university. The love-hate relationship within art and art education has driven my passion to see art as a discipline in adult education socially transformed to provide equality of access for all adult learners, no matter what their background in art. Modernist/postmodernist controlling ideologies should not segregate who can and cannot create art. Experiences with high art based on modernist/deconstructionist issues at the universities and art design/illustration for industry at a specialized art school disconnected me from the use of visual art. According to university fine art society, modernist lingo such as the term kitsch, something that appeals only to poor or lowbrow taste as in Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell, and Bob Ross paintings, dictated exploration of only such contents and issues deemed worthy to explore in the visual art community. Issues such as sexual identity defined the path to being a part of the profound meaning-makers of the postmodern visual art world. According to the ideologies of the university art instructors, it was mandatory to learn about such genius artists as Piet Mondrian and Francis Bacon. The modernist/postmodernist theories defining the university visual art world, a flotsam of two interconnected and ephemeral paradigms with no useful foundation for promoting art for adult professional education, viii was the key to the genius art focus for all adult learners. The postmodern mindset defining university art education for nontraditional adult learners was a paradigm which deconstructed anything politically or socially construed as status quo. But it created a pessimistic and nihilistic void for the instruction and practice of art in the university setting. The fundamental elements of history and techniques for art instruction were ignored in favor of forcing learners to follow the teacher's own deconstructionist ideology and aspire to the isolated "genius" artistic community where every art student was trained only to interact with other artistic elites. I believe that this is why university administrators do not know how to make art departments accountable for a respectful and thorough art department environment for adult learners in the isolation between the university visual art world and other university subjects. According to the art school (which university high art society silently pegs as commercial sell-outs), art has to be an exact skill. Professors at the art school focus on art education training for technical and professional skills, while at the liberal arts public and private universities they focus on modernist/deconstructionist intellectual genius. It is a tug-of-war between the dichotomies of art perspective. This deconstructionist pessimism in the liberal arts university leaves little room for novice adult learners to understand visual art and how to gain art skills in a university setting for personal and professional use. Not much has changed from the time of the adult art educator, Walter Smith, in the late 1800s. We are struggling just as he did for the democratization of art education. Smith, the first art educator to promote a formal system for adult art education in America, opened my eyes to what was wrong with the system of art education then and ix now. Smith became an inspiration for me because he sought to reach beyond the artistic elitism which has dominated American art education past and present. He desired social reform for working class adults by increasing art education access and increasing the availability of practical design skills. The present study aims to explore Smith's own words in detail to reveal his personality and to present him as a pioneer adult educator before his time. For historical accuracy, I quote Smith's writings as evidence. I also address how Walter Smith's struggle with high art and low art is still the struggle today in the university institution.

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