Themes in art

To follow up on Thursday's lecture, here is some good information on human commonalities and enduring ideas that can assist in starting to develop / choose your theme to focus on for the semester.

Universal human commonalities —We all:
• Experience the life cycles
• Work
• Use symbols
• Know time and place
• Search for a larger purpose
• Have an aesthetic response
• Seek social bonding
• Have a connection to nature

Enduring ideas:
• Identity
• Survival
• Conflict
• Spirituality
• Fantasy
• Power
• Rites of passage
• Change
• Ritual
• Celebration
• Heroes
• Ancestory

If one of these enduring ideas appeals to you, how can you focus in more? Start to become more specific. Put your enduring idea in context.

The above lists are credited to:

Sharon Warwick, National Art Consultant, Davis Publications. Adapted from “Educating in a Multicultural World,” a speech by Ernest Boyer; as found in the Summer 1992 Newsletter for The American forum for Global Education and the Alliance for Education in Global and International Studies.

Marilyn Stewart and Eldon Katter, Explorations in Art, Worcester, MA: Davis Publications, ©2008

Marilyn Stewart and Eldon Katter, Explorations in Art- A Personal Journey, Worcester, MA: Davis Publications, ©2008 Marilyn G. Stewart and Sidney R. Walker, Rethinking the Curriculum in Art, Worcester, MA: Davis Publications, ©2005




P.S.--Since we are referencing work by Marilyn Stewart, some of you may be interested to know that she was on JMU's campus last spring 2011. She is a Professor of Art Education at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. In the picture below, she was leading a discussion with ART 304 art criticism students at artWorks.