some tips on how to discuss art with students

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Some tips

on how to discuss art

with students

based on the book 'HOW TO TALK TO CHILDREN ABOUT ART'

by Francoise Barbe-Gall

HOW TO DEVELOP AN INTEREST IN ART

Think of your earliest visits to exhibitions. What was interesting foryou then? What made you feel bored? Your students may have similarfeelings.


Tell your students what you feel while looking at a painting. Ask them what their feelings are.


Try to transmit your presonal interests to your students.


Don't go on too much about what you are going to showyour students. You'll deny them the pleasure of discovering for themselves.


Don't stay too long at the art gallery. Don't talk for hours about one piece of art during your lesson. Your studentsmay find another one more interesting.


Don't forget to buy some postcards at the end of your visit. They make great souvenirs, can be stuck on a bedroom wall, used as bookmarks and rediscovered again and again.


Don't forget to go to the cafe. The younger the students,the more important this is. It will make their visit to the gallery into a real 'outgoing'.


Try not to pass value judgements on the pictures they like,as opposed to the ones you think they ought to like.

WHAT ATTRACTS 5-7 YEAR OLDS

'Warm, bright colours.

Strongly contrasting shapes and colours, without shades.

The appearance of relief because it 'looks real'.

Art that reproduces textures (fabric, hair, fur), engaging the sense of touch.

Pictures of people.

Pictures of movement (someone running, sleeping, diving).

Clear expressions of emotions love, laughter, crying.

Simple compositions with one central person and very few other elements'.

Don't forget:

to link what they see with their everyday life and experiences,

that 5-7 year olds don't look just with their eyes but their whole bodies join in,

to let them invent their own story to go with the piece of art,

to make them interested by asking simple questions, e.g. 'Don't you think that...?, What does that make you think of?, How does that make you feel?, Have you ever seen anything like that?


'Pictures with a story behind them a story of either the subject or the artist.

Clearly drawn character types: good guys, bad guys.

Situations of conflict where good wins over evil.

Scary pictures, strange or monstrous-looking people.

Images depicting daily life in different eras because 'it's not like that any more'.

Don't forget:

to take advantage of the characters from films, video games and cartoons to talk about the principles that particular piece of art illustrates,

to let your students read for themselves little notices next to each piece of art and to find out the name of the artist and the title of the work,

to get your students used to looking at a work independent of its subject and get them interested in artists' techniques.


'The artist's personality and the main points of his life.

Why a picture was painted at a particular point in an aritst's life.

The technique used by the artist to visually express a feeling or an idea.

The time it takes to produce a work.

Symbols, which, once deciphered, give the access to a whole network of hidden meeangs.

How much a work costs'.


'Comparing works by the same artist () Whatever the subject matter it's also a way of learning to recognise the characteristics of various periods in an artist's career.

Comparing works by different artists that deal with the same or similar subject matter (spotting the similarities and the differences).

The relationship between a work and an artist and/or history. Even if it's just to draw parallels, you can start to make links with books or history lessons from school to add context.

Don't forget:

that your students have now less time and you shouldn't overload them with long art presentations etc.,

that some subjects embarrass them (e.g. nudity may make them feel uncomfortable, but this doesn't mean you have to avoid or ignore it),

to take adavntage of the fact young people are very familiar with advertising images, and advertising often uses the history of painting: make it clear that it's not a coincidence and help them to find images that have been used in that way,

to make your students interested in the history of the artists rather than the history of art (which can be still too general for them).

some tips on how to discuss art with students

Education