Open Minds | Integrating Visual Literacy in the Classroom

Open Minds is an exchange platform initiated in 2012 by the Art1st Foundation for art teachers and educators from the field of visual arts and arts-integrated streams. Under this initiative, the art seminar and research project in 2013 has been conceived to expand the essence and meaning of open minds in collaboration with the Mohile Parikh Center.

A crucial need is to generate awareness about what art learning can offer in terms of transformative thinking. To understand aesthetics, re-imagining our traditions and explore the possibilities of contemporary art means being open to innovation in the classroom and increasing our understanding of the mind and intelligence.

Seminar Theme:
Visual Literacy has been defined as the ability to understand, interpret and read visual images. The role of the arts in its cognitive aspects is very important in the teaching-learning process. It enables children to express their ideas, emotions and thoughts freely.

To integrate the processes of visual literacy instruction into classroom curriculum begins by asking a few key questions to spark the critical thinking process. The key questions asked are:

• What am I looking at and how can I read a visual image?
• What is the artist trying to say through the techniques and the symbols used?
• What is the relationship between the image and its historical context and its relevance in my present time?
• What are the visual and verbal relationships I can use to expand my understanding of art, knowledge and society?
• How can visual literacy trigger critical thinking to enable a student to become a responsible and sensitive human being?

Objectives:
The participants will join artists and educators in workshops, presentations and group sessions to experience and analyze what visual literacy means and what learning through art looks like in practice. The objective is to strengthen the position of art education and to meet many challenges facing our youth, the arts and education through collective learning.

The seminar will offer art teachers the opportunity to:

• Learn in and through the visual arts by interacting with research-based presentations and exemplary case studies
• Understand creative processes through the work of practicing and teaching artists
• Present lesson plans and explore innovative teaching methods
• Provide a framework to develop research for art-based curricula development in schools
• Scale the proficiency level of teachers’ for creative thinking competencies

Mumbai:
Keynote Lectures: Suman Karandikar and Raja Mohanty
Case Studies: Purnima Sampat and Anupama Prakash
Workshops: Shilpa Ranade and Indrapramit Ray
Art Lesson Plans: Shital Mehta

June 15 to 16, 2013 | 9.30 am to 6.30 pm
StudioX, Mumbai

New Delhi:
Keynote Lectures: Roobina Karode and Anupama Prakash
Case Studies: Sunena Malhotra and Lata Vidyanathan
Workshops: Tushar Joag and Renuka Taneja
Art Lesson Plans: Shital Mehta, Merlyn Ebenezer, Purnima Sampat and Supriya Sharma

July 27 to 28, 2013 | 9.30 am to 6.30 pm
KHOJ International Artists’ Association, New Delhi