Isabelle Guillard
Concordia University, Canada
Abstract. This chapter explores the role that contemporary artists can play in student learning in secondary school art education. Partnerships, combining visual and media literacy approaches in pedagogy, tend to develop essential skillsets that reflect current academic aims related to democratic and responsible citizenship. Collaborative projects between practicing artists, students, and educators yield critical, outside-of-the-box thinking and communication, social engagement, and innovative uses of information and communications technology (ICT). Such partnerships also initiate students into working holistically and collaboratively across school subjects and disciplines. The narrative describes the collaboration between a high school teacher and contemporary artists, Manuel Chantre and Elisabeth Picard, through the Quebec Ministry of Education program called the “Culture in the Schools.” Transcripts from interviews of Chantre, Picard and another contemporary artist, Brandon Ballengée, illustrates how the presence of artists in the classrooms can be a highly motivating educational strategy. The experience speaks to teens’ interests and pushes the boundaries of traditional teaching methodology to incorporate, both theoretically and in practice, critical notions of identity, belonging, dialogue, and community.
Keywords: high school art education, contemporary art, citizenship, interdisciplinarity, information and communications technology.