The Importance of Art and EcoJustice Education 

There is a terrible passivity and carelessness to be overcome: feelings of malaise, hopelessness, powerlessness.  The arts will not resolve the fearful social problems facing us today; they will not lessen the evils and the brutalities affecting the modern world.  But they will enhance the consciousness of possibility if we learn how to attend.  And this itself may make a difference if more and more people are awakened, if they are freed to move through openings and develop a sense that things can indeed be otherwise than they are, somehow better than they are. (Greene 2001,  47) 

This paper provides us with important empirical evidence of the potential of art education in promoting change, and of the mechanism by which such education can happen.  Programs like Arts UP set the seeds for creating in youth an eco and cultural conscience and sense of activism through arts-based experiences. “Arts UP is a wonderful resource and starting point from which I can gather insight into the impacts of such factors as social, economic, political and historical conditions”  (Joan, Q1, 2).   We argue that programs like Art UP are imperative in creating not only future artists, but also future activists who will be critical thinkers and active, democratic citizens.  These citizens are our future.  They are vital to the reclamation of the Commons and the prevention of their further demise.  They must give rise to the great work ahead of them.  And when asked to define ecojustice, they’ll be able to answer, "Knowing the problems and strengths of your community and going so far as to act on your knowledge" (Joan, Q1, 1).

In a national Culture that functions under the residual pressures of modernization and economic development and still views the individual as the basic social unit, a sense of community life is disappearing among teens.  Art education practices that draw on intergenerational ways of knowing and caring for the environment, for human need, for cultural practices inherent to the sustainability of commons, have the potential to educate our capacity to care, and may ultimately “educate the imagination of students and motivate their engagement, so that they become prepared to reach out, think and act on the broader cultural and environmental stage” (Hicks and King 2007, 335).  Ultimately, programs like Arts UP which expose students to real world problems and engage them in creative critique of such problems over an extended period of time can begin to nurture a sense of real responsibility and action.

References
Allen, Rick. 2003. The Democratic Aims of Service Learning. Educational Leadership    60: 51.

Billings, Mary.  1995. “ Issues Versus Themes:  Two Approaches to a Multicultural Art    Curriculum.”  Art Education, January 1995: 21-56.

Bowers, C. A. Dictionary (n.d.). http://www.cabowers.net/ (accessed February 8, 2008).

Bowers, C. A. 2006.  Revitalizing the Commons: Cultural and Educational Sites of Resistance and Affirmation. New York: Lexington Books.

Bowers, C. A. 2004.  “Revitalizing the Commons or an Individualized Approach to    Planetary Ciitizenship: The Choice Before Us.”  Education Studies, 36: 45-58.

Bowers, C. A. 2003.  “Toward an Eco-Justice Pedagogy.”  www.c-a-bowers.com     (accessed January 5, 2007).

Bransford, John, Anne L. Brown, and  Rodney Cocking, (Eds.). 2001.  “How People    Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.”  Washington, D.C.: National     Academy Press.

Brenson, Michael. 2001. Visionaries and Outcasts: The NEA, Congress, and the Place of     the Visual Arts in America. New York: The New York Press.

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw,  and  Royce R. Ronning. 1999.  Cognitive     Psychology and Instruction (3rd ed.). Columbus, OH: Prentice-Hall.

Cameron, Mark, Ann Forsyth, William A. Green, Henry Lu, Patricia McGirr, Patsy E. Owens, et al. 2001.    “Learning Through Service.” College Teaching, 49: 105-114.    http://web15.epnet.com/citation.asp? (accessed April 15, 2003).    

Cho, Mika M. 1996. “Using Visual Art to Motivate At-Risk Children.” Teaching PreK-8,  26, 54-55.

Desai, Dipti 2002. “The Ethnographic Move in Contemporary Art: What Does it Mean for Art Education?” Studies in Art Education, 43: 307-323. 

Ecologist. 1993.  Whose Common Future?  Reclaiming the Commons.  Philadelphia: New    Society Publishers.EcoJustice Education (n.d.).

EcoJustice Dictionary.
http://www.ecojusticeeducation.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage and     Itemid=1 (accessed February 8, 2008).

Glesne, Corrine.  1999.  Becoming Qualitative Researchers.  White Plains, NY:      Longman.

Giroux, Henry. A. 1996. “Slacking Off: Border Youth and Postmodern Education.” In Henry  A. Giroux, C. Lankshear, Peter. McLaren  and  Michael Peters (Eds.)     Counternarratives:Cultural Studies and Critical Pedagogies in Postmodern     Spaces (59-80). New York: Routledge.

Greene, Maxine. 2001.  Variations on a blue guitar: The Lincoln Center Institute     Lectures on Aesthetic Education.  NY:  Teachers College Press.

Greene, Maxine.  1995.  Releasing the Imagination:  Essays on Education, the Arts, and     Social    Change.  San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Hawkins, David J., and Richard F. Catalano. 1992. Communities That Care: Action for Drug Abuse Prevention. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.

Haynes, Deborah. 1995. “Teaching Postmodernism.” Art Education 48: 23-50.Hicks, Laurie E. 1990.  “Feminist Analyses of Empowerment and Community in Art Education.” Studies in Art Education 32: 36-46.

Hicks, Laurie E. and Roger J.H. King. 2007. “Confronting Environmental Collapse: Visual Culture, Art Education, and Environmental Responsibility.” Studies in Art Education 48: 332-335.

Lesko, Nancy. 2001. Act Your Age! A Cultural Construction of Adolescence. New York: Routledge Falmer.

Martusewicz, Rebecca A. 2006. “Revitalizing the Commons of the African-American Communities in Detroit.” Pp 47-84 in Revitalizing the Commons: Cultural and Educational Sites of Resistance and Affirmation, Ed. C.A. Bowers. New York, NY: Lexington Books.

Noel, Jana. 2003. “Creating Artwork in Response to Issues of Social Justice: A Critical Multicultural Pedagogy.” Multicultural Education 10: 15-18.

Orr, David W. 2004. “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions.” Contemporary Education Psychology 25: 54-67.

Shiva, Vandana. 2005. Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

Short, Georgiana, Mary Erickson, and Scott Cunliffe. 1999. “Valuing and Conserving our Built Environment.” In Built Environment Education in Art Education, Eds. J. K. Guilfoil and A. R. Sandler, 37-50. Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.

Taylor, Pamela G. 2002.  “Singing for Someone Else’s Supper.” Art Education 55: 46-52.

Taylor, Pamela G. 2002. “Service-learning as Postmodern Art and Pedagogy.” Studies in Art Education 43: 124-140.

Wallot, Jaques-Albert and Bruno Joyal. 1999. “School-Community Collaboration and Artistic Process.”  Pp. 29-35 in Beyond the School: Community and Institutional Partnerships in Art Education, Eds. R. L. Irwin and A. M. Kindler. Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.