Artistic Style of Joseph Beuys - Essay Example

Art and design make a unique contribution to the aims of the national secondary school curriculum. The art programme provides opportunities to plan sequences of work, teaching approaches and learning outcomes that develop successful learners in all disciplines. When all classroom subjects are interlinked with the art and design curriculum, it helps students to become successful learners in all disciplines (National Curriculum, 2008). 

In secondary school education, art and design offers pupils the opportunity to develop their creativity by using a range of skills in a wide variety of contexts. Pupils can communicate and express their ideas and feelings in various forms such as making working models for science projects, enacting history through drama or dance, expressing creative literary work or poetry through information and communication technology, music and art, and other innovative outlets. Through exploring and sharing these ideas, pupils develop confidence and independence in learning. This is essential to becoming a successful learner who enjoys learning, makes progress and achieves higher learning outcomes (National Curriculum, 2008). The importance of creativity and cultural development through the curriculum is supported by Report (1999: 11).

Pupils’ experience with new technologies helps them to develop the skills to investigate alternative ways of working. Students learn to value the learning process as a key part of the creative experience. They are enabled to understand their own and other cultures and traditions, and possibilities to change things for the better. Art, craft, design and applied practices promote an enterprising culture and develop student’s ability to work on a collaborative basis. Thus, pupils’ understanding and appreciation of fine art, design and craft enriches their life in the present time as well as in the future. According to Parsons (2002: 149), the teacher’s task is to work with students to develop creative practices that help to reformulate how students articulate their sense of self in a wider social and political context.

The study of art and design is also enriched by integration with other subjects. Due to the literary content of artworks and their role as social documents, contextual enquiry enlivens the study of art by reaching out to history, literature, sciences and other arts for background and thematic connections in values and concepts. Thus a more compelling picture of the lived experience expressed in artworks is obtained (Amdur, 1993: 14).

This survey has highlighted Joseph Beuys’ concept of why art education should be embodied in all subjects in the secondary school curriculum. Students become successful learners in all disciplines through the incorporation of art and design in their school curriculum. They are enabled to develop values to assess the world around them, and to evaluate their own as well as others’ work. Increased confidence in their own opinions leads to enhanced feelings of self-worth and a greater ability to relate to others. Students grow to be responsible citizens since investigations in art, craft and design help them to appreciate the diversity of ideas and different approaches to social and cultural understandings (National Curriculum, 2008).