Rabu, 15 April 2009

NOTES ABOUT CULTURE BASED ART EDUCATION :

Art Education in Indonesia : Towards an Integrated Curriculum
by : Endo Suanda


Formal Education in the Arts

In Indonesia, as elsewhere in the world, elementary school classes are taught by general teachers, not by specialists; teachers teach all subjects: including mathematics, language and art. In high schools expert teachers are employed. Art is generally taught by specialized art teachers, who studied art to become art teachers. These art teachers are generally skilled in one discipline, be it visual art, music, etc. Most schools only have one art teacher, with the result that generally only one type of art is taught. This is problematic, because students need to be made aware of the whole range of arts.
The art colleges in Indonesia have at least three departments: music, theatre and dance, sometimes they also teach puppetry. In Indonesia there are around 10 art colleges, which produce 500 graduates each year. These art schools are oriented towards teaching techniques. But if, for example, the teaching of music is restricted only to teaching technical aspects, students are not actually learning the meaning, context and value of music.
Almost all “art” that is taught is based on a western art system. The colours in the visual arts, the tuning in the music, the plots, staging and design in theatre, all are based on western (classical and modern) norms. This is problematic in a multicultural country such as Indonesia, which is so rich in its own art forms with a wide range of concepts of colours and space, and as much variety in art as there is in cultures – from the Javanese to the Sumatran. If the concept of “art” is taught as one, singular, western based concept, the Indonesian students will not appreciate their own art-forms
or even recognize them as arts.
There is a gap between concepts taught at school and the social reality. In reality we have complexity but we are not taught to appreciate it. Also, the art taught in school does not teach the students to understand complex phenomena. Students are taught to see things in a neat and orderly way. Subjects are divided and are the interconnections are ignored. Because of this, subjects such as music and theatre are taught separately.


Creation Of An Integrated Arts Curriculum

At the current time, living traditional culture is not brought into schools, and school curricula do not reflect the realities of community life. We therefore need to develop tools and means of bridging the gap between communities and schools and enabling students to learn about and appreciate their own cultures and heritage.
Our goal is not only to teach skills in the arts, we also want to impart a general appreciation of art. We want to give students the chance to become specialists on their own, but also want to develop an audience. We need a good audience to get good art.
We conceive art as a social phenomenon, as culture. The learning of art is of value in expressing culture. We want to teach people to enjoy and respect their own and other cultures.
We therefore need to create a curriculum which does not separate dance, music and drama, because in reality these are not separate entities. We should not separate, for example, gong, mask and dance, because these are interconnected systems. We should not separate cognitive, psychological and affective, because in reality these belong
together. We should try not only to teach technical aspects, but also the contextual.



ps: Mr. Endo Suanda is my Extraordinary Culture based Art Teacher.

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