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Renacimiento en rojo V, by María Suardi.
Pint. acrílica y carborundum sobre madera. 100 x 100 x 9 cm. 2010
We cannot avoid quoting Sir Herbert Read when he says, “Education may therefore be defined as the cultivation of modes of expressions- it is teaching children and adults how to make sounds, images, movements, tools and utensils. A man who can make such things well is a well educated man. If he can make good sounds, he is a good speaker, a good musician, a good poet; if he can make good images, he is a good painter or sculptor; if good movements, a good dancer or labourer; if good tools or utensils, a good craftsman. All faculties, of thought, logic, memory, sensibility and intellect, are involved in such processes, and no aspect of education is excluded in such processes. And they are all processes which involve art, for art is nothing but the good making of sounds, images, etc. The aim of education is therefore the creation of artists- of people efficient in the various modes of expression.”
We have to remember John Berger´s words, “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak” and he urged us to think of pictures as being “more like words and less like holy relics”
Therefore we can provide images for children to talk about in English developing in this way their visual perception and and their knowledge and understanding of art.
Works of art are ideal points for analysis, debate and creative writing. Children have to develop a conceptual vocabulary that allows them to talk about art, craft and design in a meaningful way. And why not, it will help them as well in the learning of a foreign language.
The Education Department of the Castagnino Museum organises gallery tours together with all sorts of activities for schools which lead to the exploration of language; visual literacy, cross- curricular connections and different ways of looking and creating meaning.
One of their teachers has participated in the one- year course of Education Through Art that we give to the fourth- year students of our Profesorado. In this way we have created a link between the Museum and our Institution.
Configuración triangular, by María Suardi. Serigrafía 76 x 56 cmn. 2008
Education Through Art
Education Through Art by María Suardi