Dear Art Educators,
Especially tertiary art educators, why are you teaching? Are you intending to train art professionals? At the primary level we nurture self-expression and appreciation for art. At the secondary level, we continue as with the primary but also encourage the acquisition of and the improvement on technical skills. At the tertiary level what are you doing? What are we doing? Are we nurturing art professionals or are we just working to pay the bills?
I know (much too well) that the work we do can often go unacknowledged and unappreciated. But why do you step into the classroom? What are your intentions? Who are you serving? Please prioritise your students and why they are before you. They likely are before you because there is a talent they wish to hone and a desire to speak with the language of art. They are relying on you to guide them, advise them, and even if they do not realise it, they need you to also stretch them. Stretch them – push them beyond themselves. No one should leave after a period of study with you as they came. They should know more, be able to do better, and be at least a little further along on the path to becoming top-notch in what they do.
Don’t be afraid of your students’ talent, their enthusiasm to grow, and their willingness to do the work growth and excellence entail. Guide them. Stretch them. Help them to speak using this language of elements and principles, aided by their proficiency with traditional and non- traditional art media. Help your students to find and use their voice; their own voice. It is not good if their work looks like a less refined version of your work. Your techniques need not be theirs, or your themes theirs. Help your students to gain confidence in the merit of their ideas and the use of their ‘visual voice’.