Olcay Kirisgly

Olcay Kirisgly, "Mustafa Kemal" Faculty in Istambul

OUR CULTURE IS IN THE MUSEUM:

Art Learning in and through Art

This study combines four art disciplines to improve learning in art and through art in secondary schools. The activities focus on Drama, History of Art, Art Criticism, and Art Production.

Two institutions: Mustafa Kemal Universicaty Anatakya were chosen in this study as a place to carry out the activities:

Through this contextual art study, it is aimed:

To extend learning opportunities appropriate for effective art education,

To enable the pupils to understand past cultures,

To promote the new insight into present cultures.

Keys words: Museum Education, Interdisciplinary, Art Learning, Qualitative Methods in Art Education.

Since the 1990s, art education has moved towards new approaches, and gained new perspectives in the world.

One of the new approaches is interdisciplinatity. A broadened concept of art education includes efforts to expand the scope of the artistic area and interface them with the others art. In some cases curriculum content of this new approach relates to music and theatre programmers. Moreover, in the broadened concept of art education that is in, interdisciplinary art education other subject areas are integrated beyond arts in the curriculum in order to provide more learning. According to this view, the arts are great potential partners in academic achievements (Catterall, 1998).

One of the resources of art education is the museum. The museum brings the pupils face to face with original objects. The archaeological museum is famous for its beautiful Roman mosaics dated to 2nd and 3rd century AD.

In this study it is expected that the museum will provide the artistic atmosphere and creative settings for art learning. This differs from school activities that are usually presented sequentially and in structural way. In the museum, learning from objects forms of a less structured way. In the museum, learning from objects forms the basis of a less structured process, which engages the learner's own interests, ideas, and experiences ( Berry , 1998).

The second environment chosen for this study is the university studio where the pupils have carried on the productive part of research. The rationale for working at the university studios is to make the pupils feel like artistic themselves, using all the equipment and senses within an artistic atmosphere.

Purpose of the project

The purpose of this project is as follows:

• To examine the experience of the four art disciplines an different and more vivid settings outside the classroom
• To study the integration of the four art disciplines in sequencing in the arts,
• To study the impact of different and diverse modes of inquiry of different arts subjects that enable art teachers to teach art more effectively.

Drama, art history, art criticism and art making were in this project in order to encourage the pupils to express their ideas, experience and feelings easily.

Drama would provide the pupils with an interpretative approach, and a physical involvement towards work of art. Through improvisation and rule-playing, we tried to create empathy towards to iconographic meaning of the historical and critical knowledge. This establishes a habit of visiting the museums, making it easy for learning art historical and critical knowledge as well as appreciation of works of art.

Hat would provide a better understanding of a work of art, and add more information about the object chosen.

Art production takes place in this interdisciplinary study as the fusion off all other disciplines of art by meaning and experiencing different techniques.

This interdisciplinary art education project was especially designed for educational research with its cal, critical, kinesthetic and practical connections. Its aim is to provide the intellectual and emotional balance needed in learning as well as teaching art.

At the end of the project, I expected the pupils would achieve the following:

• Appreciate their cultural heritage in the museums,
• Understand the mythology of the mosaics through drama (role-playing),
• Develop critical aesthetic thinking towards the work of art or artifacts,
• Know the history of art with the original objects in a vivid atmosphere
• Know create their own symbols with which to communicate.

Problem

In secondary schools, in many cases art teachers limit the activities in making art. Themes have mostly been chosen from subject of daily activities, special days, or still life, that is to say, very ordinary subject. In addition, the museums have seldom been used as the cultural resource for art education.

Research question

The main question in this study is:

• What happens when I integrated four art disciplines in order to provide more effective learning in art?

Sub questions

• What is impact of interdisciplinary art education in schools when we extend it beyond the regular school days
• What is the nature of the collaboration between the university, the school, and the museum for educational purpose?

Limitations

I limit my study to 16 volunteer student selected from different secondary schools in Antakya . They were invited to join the class to enjoy, to learn, and to create without any discrimination in terms of ability.

The duration of the study was 10 weeks: one full day a week. Eight lessons were carried out in the museum for 2 days activities were carried out at the university studios. During this study an archaeologist and drama teacher helped me.

Method

A qualitative method of inquiry was used in this study. This can be termed as an educational action research or educational criticism (Eisner, 19991). This study, in one respect, as an educational research that expand our perception and understanding of an educational problem. From another respect, it is called a case study in which we depict the problem in its entire personal and social complexity (Steke, 1988).

The teacher takes an active place in this study as a researcher as well as being a participant in the research. Qualitative research broadens our field of knowledge and illuminates the other practitioners intervention and collaboration with the parties involved (Hitchock, Huges, 1995). This gives action research a very particular character.

Activities include pre and post testing, role-playing, group discussion, guest ion and answer writing, end exploring the art materials used in this teaching methods. During the art criticism part of the project, Feldman s (1970) and Barrett s (1994) criticism methods of inquiry were used.

Research Procedure

The project consisted of five units. Each unit was divided into a number of separate but interrelated activities.

In every activity common characteristics from qualitative and Acton research played a role:

• Data collection: At this stage, photographs, notes, interviews, questionnaires, participant observation took place.
• Content analysis: Instructional and critical consisted of pre and posttests, the examination of photographs and drawings, prints and mosaic samples.
• Comparative analysis was a process of relating the educational situation to different conditions.

Description of the Participant

The participants: selected randomly from different secondary schools in Antakya .

Archaeologies: a lecturer at the university, who have had no previous experience with the children. But she communicated with them very well.

Drama teacher: a research assistant at the art educational department. He took drama courses several times, participated in activities by means of his individual efforts.

The archaeologist and drama teacher were not co-researchers but they participated in some aspect of the study.

The museum staff had no background in museum educational but they welcomed us very well; they were very helpful.

Procedure

This unit and activities were designed in a meaningful and balanced order. Every unit was built on the basic theme of "necessity for every culture, while maintain one s own cultural identityy". All activities were designed around the sub theme of "culture of our land: Roman mosaics".

Themes of the unit were choosen from the museum reffernig of their iconographical and symbolic meanings. The units are as follows:

• Unit 1- We all need to know our Artistic Heritage in the museum.
• Unit 2- Experiencing ordinal work: We criticised the Narcissus Mosaic
• Unit 3- The difference between a fake and original Iphigenia at Aulis
• Unit 4- Universal meanings: The Evil Eye (the concept related from the past to our day).
• Unit 5- Way of life of our citizens: Romans, the buffet Mosaic.

At the beginning of the firs day, I gave the pupils a pre-test consisting of some questions about concepts, definitions, and their knowledge about the museum and about the objected protected and exhibited in the museum. Then we followed the process of doing the units in sequential order.

Unit 1

The first unit consisted of two activities. One was an introductory speech given by an archaeologist from the university.

She took the pupils through the galleries, showed some objects, informed the pupils about the following:

• What is museum?
• What is archaeology?
• How does the museum collect objects?
• How are the object excavated?
• How to experts understand the age of the objects?

The second activity was called "Discovering the Museum". The pupils were left free to walk around to discover the museum with the guidebook specially designed for them.

Unit 2

Experiencing original work: Narcissus and Echo

The Nacissus and Echo mosaic was discovered at Daphe (Harbiye) in a house. The square panel has a broad border of acanthus leaves and human heads. Echo, whose name is written above her head, stands on a rock with a spear in her hand. She is looking at Narcissus in the water. In the background to the right is Eros with a bow in one hand and a torch in the other. He is looking at Narcissus.

The first activity was to understand the iconographic meaning of the mosaic through drama. The pupils shared the roles: Narcissus, Echo, Lake , Bow and Arrow, Eros, flower (narcissus), and tree.

Topics for discussion about the drama were the following.

• Beauty is not valuable by itself
• Human weaknesses

The pupils played their roles according to the description of the mosaics. They added symbolic meaning to their act. The active involvement in the art learning process by using drama provided a very close relationship with the object in the museum. The pupils also gained practical knowledge of history and historical understanding.

The pupils tried to search the meaning of their casting role.

• Narcissus: Male estimation of human values
• Echo: Meaningless repetition
• Arrow: Symbol of stimulation
• Lake : Reality
• Flower: Symbol of conceit
• Eros: Symbol of love

After the drama, they continued criticizing the mosaic through the stage of describing, analyzing, interpreting, and judging according to Feldman s (1970) method of critical inquiry.

A vocabulary test paper was given after this critical information.

The last activity of this unit was producing art. The students were asked to design a mosaic floor for some part of their house with oil pastels. They compared the meaning with oil pastels. They compared the meaning of their symbols with the ones created in the 3rd century AD.

Unit 3

Exploring the difference between reproduction and the original object. In this unit we did not follow the same routine as in the other unit. Critical discussion took place as a firs activity. The process of describing, analyzing, interpreting, and judging was parallel to a discussion of the original and take fake. Every characteristic of the original work was compared with the photographic copy of the object.

The questions were designed to direct the pupils to noticing the differences:

• Is everybody photographing the name? Why?
• Can you estimate the original size of the mosaic by looking at this card?
• Can you feel the texture when you touch the surface?
• Can you get the same sensation when you touch the original work? If mot, why?
• Which one would you prefer, if you wanted to put in your house? Why? Appreciate the qualities of the original work)

Drama was the second activity related to art historical information. The story was very close to our land ( Troy ). The pupils found out the answer of the question relating to art history, when, where, who, how, etc.

The third activity was making art. They were asked to copy the mosaic and compare the result with original work, and the photograph of the mosaic.

Unit 4

The universal meaning: The Evil Eye

The evil eye (2nd century AD) mosaic was chosen for its universal meaning as an example of superstitious beliefs. Since ancient times some people have believed that negative energy passes from person to person and that affect their lives negatively. People have carried different object such as blue beads or eagle feathers in order to protect themselves and their children from this kind of negative energy, or evil glance.

During the firs activity of this unit, the pupils discussed the symbolic meaning of the mosaic. They were asked to find out the meaning of different symbols attached to the evil eye. They copied the mosaic and made a mask for use in the drama. They acted according to the meaning of the mosaic. Later, the pupils were taken to the university studios and were asked to create their own protective symbols and apply them to printmaking material.

Unit 5

The last unit was about the daily style of our citizens: Romans. The buffet mosaic (dated 3rd century AD, discovered at Daphne) was chosen for this activity.

The mosaic consists of two parts, a semicircle and a triangle. Within this semicircle there is a medallion in which Ganymedes is shown watering an eagle. In the border, there is an arrangement of various kind of food. In front of this mosaic, the pupils discussed the art world through improvised role-playing. Roles were shared among the pupils as the artist, the visitors, and the dealer. The play was designed to relate the past to today. What did the iconographic definitions of the elements in the mosaic mean to people back then, and what do they mean to people today?

Through this activity, the pupils will:

• Gain the skill of historical inquiry
• Discuss the theme relating to their daily living habits (culture of food)
• Interpret the meaning of art from a cultural historical point of view
• Compare this view with the present habits

In our research procedure, the last activity was carried out in the university studios. The theme was "we are making mosaic". It was the production of all learning process of this study. The result was successful. They applied symbols to mosaic techniques. They used pieces of glass, ceramics, and stone. And the final was evaluation material of all study for 10 weeks.

Conclusion

Acquisition of knowledge through different art disciplines (drama, history of art, art criticism, and making art) is the main thrust of this study. It was aimed to generate a theory. After all, many researchers could do this kind of research. In this case study, I sought to examine my personal and theoretical commitments, to see the results and to obtain some particular interpretations for teaching of art, which would illuminate my teaching of prospective art teachers. A detailed examining of pupil s behavior during the activities, and their works; photographs taken during the study, pre and posttest, the guide filled by pupils, and interviews with were examined.

As a result, the museum and the university as the environment for the study provided a very artistic, illuminating atmosphere. The pupils behaved like professional art historian, critics, and artist in those special buildings.

The pupils enjoyed knowledgeable relations, discovered the beauty of the original objects in the museum. They felt important and creative in this cultural rich environment. They believed that they could manage to produce a work of art as the ones they examined the museum. This way a very important result for learning in the arts and obtaining the skill to understand the history of art. Choosing the mosaic with universal meaning as well as culturally familiar object enabled the pupils to form this lik between the past and the present.

In the final test, the pupils were asked which activity they liked the best. Most of the pupils put their chose on the side of the drama. During the study we observed the dominance of drama. That is why in some units I changed the row activities. So I tried to establish to balance between the disciplines.

In a boarder perspective of the study, the pupils through about art, talked about art, created art as well. Through that interdisciplinary art education research, instead of just receiving knowledge about the history of art and artifact, the pupils were persuaded to obtain the skills of understanding art history "which is crucial to art education. Historical inquiry, is also essential to learning about art criticism and other aspect of art" (Erikson, Adddiss, 1993).

Role-playing helped pupils to evaluate the art object and to understand the point of view of the artists and their culture in the past, and to relate this knowledge to present.

By coping the mosaics, the pupils achieved a sense of universal values as well as developing their own style using different materials and techniques. They also promoted learning in arts.

In the process of all the activities, through drama, art making, critical and historical discussion on art objects, peer learning occurred as well.

Culture belongs to all, no matter if others create it by us, or, in the past or in the present. Turkey has a culturally glorious past to be share by people".

To establish an effective art and cultural education in Turkey, we must take this reality into consideration: otherwise, ignoring this reality will cause a cultural discontinuity and loosing our cultural contact with the world community.