Norman Yakel and Carol Casswell (2011)

“The times they are a-changin’*”: The massification of process and product in contemporary culture (2011)

The following proposed conference session offers participants a demonstration of two separate efforts to provide universal access to visual art experiences 1.)  A richly layered, curriculum-based website for online visual arts learning and 2.)  An intuitive, visual art-making application for the Apple iPad.    

How do technologies influence the massification of cultural artefacts or products and the processes to create them, within our contemporary society, through enhancement of public access?  How does this ever-changing technological milieu affect curriculum and classroom teaching in both secondary and post-secondary settings?

The visual presentation provides two clear examples of how, through enhancement of public access, technologies influence the massification of cultural artefacts or products and the processes used to create them within our contemporary society.  The intent is to share several ways in which technologies encourage, support and enhance public engagement with visual art and art experiences.

First, www.ARTSask.ca, an award-winning website, launched in August 2010, was initiated to offer an opportunity for comprehensive community access to major Canadian visual arts resources from the collections of the Mendel and MacKenzie Art Galleries, two primary public galleries of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada.  The ARTSask project presents theme-based, content-related and interactive online learning about visual art and artists in both English and French.  The online materials are designed to feature and promote local and national collective cultural heritage through an interactive online sharing of the imagery, ideas and lives of contemporary Saskatchewan and Canadian artists.

Secondly, ARTmaker, an application for the Apple iPad that provides access for people of all ages to a means for intuitively creating, manipulating and using visual images.  By its design, ARTmaker is an image-making invitation for not only professional artists and high school art majors, but offers welcoming opportunities and introduces digital means to be creative with image production for those who have always wanted to but who assumed a lack of skills or experience with art materials.  The massification of visual image creation becomes a reality!

* Bob Dylan (1964)

http://www.artmakerapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ARTmaker-Ver31.mov

 www.ARTSask.ca

Carol Casswell has extensive experience in curriculum and professional development planning for Regina Public Schools, currently teaches high school Arts Education Grades 9-12, is a doctoral student at the University of Regina, and is Co-Director of ARTSask, a project involving a partnership among the University of Regina, the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education that has been designed to create an online, contemporary visual art curriculum resource, using images from the collections of the Mendel and MacKenzie Art Galleries of Saskatchewan.

Norman Yakel is a senior professor in the Arts Education Program of the Faculty of Education, University of Regina where in addition to teaching, he is involved in numerous innovative community field work activities, supervises students in Graduate Studies in Art Education and is Co-Director of field work activities, involving a partnership among the University of Regina, the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education that has been designed to create an online, contemporary visual art curriculum resource, using images from the collections of the Mendel and MacKenzie Art Galleries of Saskatchewan.

Representing the University of Regina, the presenters are the co-directors for the development of the ARTSask website, which received generous funding support from Canadian Heritage, in a competitive context, for two separate stages of the website’s development.  

Presenters are also developers of ARTmakerapp, an application for iPad and iPhone, designed for digital art-making that is intuitive, inspiring and by its design simplicity, accessible to everyone.