Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Action in Ohio 2010

Mural of Ohio with Coordinator: Katen Kutzel                                                 Ohio 2010

 

The Ohio action underlines as a concept the importance of collaborative learning. As Karen Hutzel writes about her ongoing research work, teaching and engagement:

"I will send along written information in the near future (and beyond, depending on the scope of research produced). I have been writing on community art for several years, and have more recently become interested in collaborative artmaking with children as an area of research. I think this is an important form of contemporary art in which the process becomes as or more important than the product. For that reason, the process needs scrutinized through research to identify methods and possibilities for attempting to produce collaborative artwork in a democratic manner. I'm not as interested in collaborative artwork that intends to involve people in realizing a singular artist's vision, which I might compare to a dictatorship. My initial description of our process with the Guernica mural is that it was a process built on democratic consensus and aimed to create space for al voices, visions, and ideas to be included in one piece. At the same time, however, there was a certain level of adult guidance in trying to produce a work that is also visually appealing, This, I believe, is the challenge of living in a society, only replicated in a small way in our mural process."

Older Students stand to learn a lot from younger ones

This concept of 'collaborative learning' can be linked to the kind of Buddy System practiced as well by Deniz Hasirci in Izmir, Turkey. It means older students take care of younger ones but find out in the process how much they can learn from the younger ones. A reason for this is that younger ones have not yet as much fears to make mistakes. Rather they are open to learn from them. Older students fear to be criticized or not be valued as much if they make mistakes. There is this notion of having to be perfect in order to be successful. The latter is naturally goal orientated and subject to control as would underline Bart Verschaffel (see his speech in the session of Cultural Planning at the ECCM Symposium 'Productivity of Culture' at http://productivityofculture.org/symposium/cultural-planning-2/what-can-we-expect-from-cultural-planning-by-bart-vrschaffel/

Therefore, it would be of interest on how substantial is then the linkage between collaborative learning and work processes not goal but process orientated with emphasis upon everyone learning to work and to share with others.

Follow-up to the Tallahassee Exhibition in January 2010

The Ohio Action came about as a result of Tom Anderson having organised the Kids' Guernica exhibition and the Symposium on Art Education for Social Justice at the Florida State University in Tallahassee, USA. Karen, his former student, took up this impulse and carried it to her university environment in Ohio. There is now a start of exchange with Karen Hutzel about not only what took place when they painted the mural, but what is her background and interest. As it turns out a major thesis of hers is how deprived urban areas have their own social capital into which community arts can tap into and help rebuild or build a new community. The latter depends upon a growing awareness of real life experiences made by children of those deprived areas having a lot to teach to students seeking a curriculum which prepares them better for the future and specifically for this kind of work. A similar interest has been expressed by Monique Kissel, Prof. for the Arts at the University of Saint Denis in Paris. Both the location of the university insofar as it is a deprived urban area and the need to find new perspectives for students once they graduate has prompted her interest in Kids' Guernica. The latter has the potential to develop further art educational methods by going directly to the children. Real life experiences are made outside the university and the realms of higher education but you do need students being sensitivized to these experiences.

From: Karen Hutzel [mailto:hutzel.4@osu.edu]
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2010

Subject: KIDS' GUERNICA PAINTING in Ohio, USA

Hello all! We are taking our show down next week... I have attached an image of our mural and a few pictures of us working. It was a wonderful (and tiring!) experience! We worked with Somali immigrant children, a large population of whom live in Columbus but are not readily accepted here. Our graduate students learned quite a bit from the children, many of whom were under the age of 8. We declared that our mural was created by children ages 5 through 95, and you can see the variety of skills based on age within the mural. This image doesn't do it justice, as the details are really important (including quotes from the kids). We are most proud of the fact that the children decided what was to go into the mural (such as the clown riding the water slide in the night sky, and the park and pond which reflects their experience walking around campus at Ohio State).

Many thanks to you all for sending us the murals. We worked in the room where they were exhibited, and they provided a great deal of inspiration to us. You can see some of that influence in our work (such as the border, which reflects the border of the Tallahassee mural).

 

 

The photos were taken by Meaghan Brady Nelson

 

Follow-up

I should have some very meaningful results to share about our experience. All of our (19) graduate students will be submitting final reflective projects next week. I plan to draw from their work in writing up a description of outcomes. Additionally, one of our PhD students (Da Hyun Lee in Arts Policy and Administration) is conducting in-depth research on the results of the international/multicultural exchange. This is her area of research interest, and I have high expectations for what she will produce on this research and for her dissertation study in the near future. She is currently requesting university Human Subjects approval for her research to interview the children and the adults who participated. She is also planning to propose a presentation on this research at the Social Theory, Politics, and the Arts Conference. I think you might find her work very useful for the Guernica project overall, so she and I will keep you informed.

 

Karen Hutzel, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Art Education

Colleges of Arts and Humanities

The Ohio State University

___________________________

253 Hopkins Hall

128 North Oval Mall

Columbus, OH 43210

Phone: 614.688.4703

Fax: 614.688.4483

hutzel.4@osu.edu

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