Four Lessons is a brief guide to interdisciplinary arts teaching that subverts our current federal administration’s unwillingness to support the National Endowment for the Arts.

The government’s aversion to promoting public art not only closes avenues of funding for artists and arts organizations across the country, but furthermore would change the station of public art into something private, exclusive, and limited. While it could be argued that federal funding is damaging to the arts due to state influence and control factors, this project stands on the premise that the availability of federal funding for the arts promotes increased diverse opportunities over time.

 

Four Lessons subverts the government’s position by using its own outlined education standards to first measure the government’s competency; and secondly plan lessons according to where I find the administration to be lacking in comprehension and/or capability. Specifically, by using the Ohio state standards for visual and musical arts education I can relate the larger issue on a local level. Beyond that, I can implement the lessons in my local community, as well as support arts educators and advocates in a direct manner.

 

For my project, I implemented the lessons from Four Lessons at MyCincinnati, a community arts center in Price Hill that is based on the El Sistema education structure, offering free music lessons to community children (and adults) in return for the student’s dedication and time investment. This community was important for me to interact with because it exemplifies many of the groups the NEA supports across the United States. In my (very) brief experience as an arts educator for both visual and musical arts, I have found that there are many complex issues that can be addressed through the arts concerning child behavior, world views, and cognitive development.

 

Within Four Lessons, there are well, four lessons: and each addresses a different facet of the federal administration’s behavior and practice that is problematic for both the National Endowment for the Arts as well as many of the other groups or individuals the administration may be opposed to. For example: the first of these lessons, Language, is aimed at developing students’ understanding and ability to use advanced English vocabulary. Through this lesson, objectives for learning include the ability to speak, express ideas, and explain decisions coherently – all markers of developmental maturity. This is an important topic to comment on, because parts of the American population feel our president and other government officials are lacking these attributes.

 

After recognizing this larger issue, this project employs the forms good and ethical seeing (as defined by Susan Sontag) to raise awareness in a practical and effective manner. I use the word “effective” in correlation with good ethical seeing, because this indicates the empathetic viewer will be prompted to act on what they see. Action is important for change to occur in the public sphere’s perspective concerning federal and state arts funding.

 

The issue of advocacy for public art in the United States is a tricky one because outspoken protesting has proved unsuccessful for previous NEA advocates. Past examples of advocate failure have involved well-meaning protestors who spoke and act in bold manners, but ultimately gave the public the impression that the NEA only takes public money to give to the already privileged for luxury purposes. 1 Many government officials in power still share this dominant way of seeing, despite extensive evidence that the current NEA majorly supports rural and disparaged communities. 2 Since outspoken protesting has not worked in favor of the NEA, some professionals have suggested approaching the issue in more silent tactics that to not incite the public, but rather directly reach the individuals and groups with power and input. Art educators and public officials fall into that category, and for these reasons they are the targeted audience of this project.

 

As an object of artistic output, Four Lessons relates to the work of Social Practice Artist Pablo Helguera of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Helguera’s practice incorporates teaching and lecture as performance, thus subverting arts education and administration into art forms. His works The Administrative Artist (2003) and The School of Panamerican Unrest (2003-ongoing) have particularly influenced Four Lessons through the concept of transpedagogy; defined by Helguera as an art form that “blends the educational processes and art making in ways that are clearly different to the more conventional functions of formal art education.” 3

 

Through the process of this project I learned to cross a few boundaries when it comes to artistic output. As a young arts student, the first things learned are basics of technique and art history; and while subversion and risk-taking is encouraged, it can be difficult to validate newer and relatively unestablished art forms, such as Social Practice. However, I have found through this experience that such options are viable to study and implement in my own practice.

 

-SCK

 

1 Moss, I.D. “Uncomfortable Thoughts.” Createquity. August 19, 2014. www.createquity.com

 

2 “Arts Education Fact Sheet.” National Endowment for the Arts. November 2016. www.arts.gov.

 

3 Helgura, Pablo. “Transpedagogy: Contemporary Art and the Vehicles of Education.” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, May 2009. Public Panel. Read here.