Rather than simply being of utility to the expression of personal identity or the development of creativity, art education is integral to the existential human search for meaning. In a recent article about art education Gert Biesta draws on Hannah Arendt’s philosophy of the struggle to “reconcile oneself to reality” (Arendt, 1994 as cited in Biesta, 2019). Biesta utilizes her thinking about ‘feeling at home in world’ to illustrate the very point of art education itself. He explains how art is particularly well suited to a contemplative search for values which help one live one’s life in a grown-up way.
In his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” (also known as “The Classic Tribute to Hope from the Holocaust”), Victor Frankl notes how our primary motivation in life is neither pleasure, nor power but meaning. Meaning is essentially the search for answers to the ever-changing questions that life puts forth to us about what is right conduct and right action. Biesta explains that art education facilitates the development of the “grown-upness” necessary to meet these struggles. Frankl separates three main categories of activity which support the quest for meaning:
“…we can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering. The first, the way of achievement or accomplishment, is quite obvious. The second and third need further elaboration. The second way of finding a meaning in life is by experiencing something—such as goodness, truth and beauty—by experiencing nature and culture or, last but not least, by experiencing another human being in his very uniqueness—by loving him.”
Creative acts and the experience of goodness, truth and beauty occupy prominent places in the existential human search for meaning. The role of art education to facilitate the development of such fundamental aspects of our nature should never be trivialized.
Biesta, Gert. (2019, September 1). Trying to be at home in the world: New parameters for art education. Artlink. https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/4781/trying-to-be-at-home-in-the-world-new-parameters-f/
Frankl, Victor. (2011). Man’s Search for Meaning. Rider. (1946)
(below) Grade 11/12. Pencil sketch of school field during imposed COVID restrictions.
(below) Grade 11/12 Acrylic painting on canvas. In this project each student received one found painting from the thrift store to creatively alter as they saw fit. In the example below, a student added octopus arms and a seated figure to an empty boat.
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