Better Citizenship Through Art Training - A Syllabus for High Schools, Colleges, or Study Clubs

Angebote / Angebote:

ACKNOWLEDGMENT When I first gathered data and material of various sorts on art subjects it was wholly for my own use in classwork without a thought of publication at the time. Often at lectures or from my reading I jotted down things worth while and in this way collected many valuable notes to which, however, I did not always append the name of the speaker or writer. Hence the frequent quotation marks and seeming inconsistency in crediting source. In freely using the words of others and passing on their thought, I feel that I am enlisting their various services in the great cause of good citizenship. To the many who have thus contributed so much valuable material my grateful acknowledgment is tendered. FOREWORD Art should not be for the few any more than liberty is for the few. Educators are beginning to realize more and more the truth of this creed of William Morris. Educationally, it should be made impossible for anyone to deprecate the fact that he knows nothing about art. The power to feel and to express, to judge and to execute, lies dormant in every soul in some to a greater degree than in others. Those with the greater inherited capacity and better training will become creative artists, perhaps but all may become, at least to some extent, users of good judgment and taste. So intimately are we in touch with art principles in our daily lives, that we constantly use or misuse them. With practical art training, there is no reason why any boy who grows up to be a carpenter should not know that a door or window that equals two squares is a commonplace proportion, nor is there any reason why the president of a bank or the superintendent of a school who engages the carpenter should not know that the portico of his house is ill proportioned and why, should it be so. With practical art training, every girl should know how to dress simply and in good taste, and knowledge of color harmony should be general. The wish to have a well-planned, beautiful city is a matter of training, education and the wish is father to the thought. The course of study, as outlined here, is designed to give a general training or appreciation to those who mill have no further opportunity to study the subject or, preferably, it may supplement exercises in design or art structure. The somewhat prevalent idea that art appreciation means the appreciation of pictures only, influences us, perhaps, to take up pictorial art last. Such subjects as city planning, landscape gardenlng, house decoration, and costume design are too little thought of in connection with art principles. This outline is meant to be suggestive, flexible, to point out the way, and to stimulate the desire for original research work. Its study may be taken up by individuals, but the best results are to be obtained working in groups under leadership. It has been found very helpfull, in this sort of study, to keep notebooks wherein findings of various sorts, clippings, magazine illustrations, etc., may be kept. Each notebook should be the expression of the taste, judgment, and the sense of value of its owner. There should be individual choice in the matter of tracings, clippings, etc., so that each notebook shall be characteristic of its owner, and, therefore, the more interesting. - Following the approved method of modern pedagogy, the student should be encouraged by the teacher or leader of a group to inquire into all reference material and to collect his own data as far as possible...