Visual Arts

"Meaning is not limited to what words can express ... humans are meaning-making creatures." -E Eisner, 2002

Visual Arts at GSIS offers students opportunities for rich and deep experiences within a progressive, supported curriculum framework. The making of art, the process; becomes the embodiment of the search for a deeper understanding of Self - a journey, that in the first instance engages the physical, but carries a great deal more in its potential. Art making ultimately provides access to multiple levels of understanding and realization.

GSIS art teachers are primarily facilitators. Whilst their role is to teach techniques, skills and impart knowledge - all creativity rides on the shoulders of our history of invention and discovery. Information/knowledge/facts are not ends in themselves but tools to aid in a much greater undertaking - the making of meaning and the creation of who we are. The teacher must step into the student's shoes, see through their eyes and witness the journey while continuing to learn.

"The possibilities for growth in and through the arts cease only when we do."
-E Eisner, 2002

Contemporary Principles of Arts Education recognize the value of life-long learning in the arts, which offers:

• Opportunities to realize creative human potential.
• Opportunities to build critical, cultural and symbolic capacities in creating a sense of meaning and connectedness with oneself, others and the environment.
• Skills, understandings and imaginings for access to and influence within the 'knowledge society'.
• Engagement with technologies in the creative and cultural industries.
• A plurality of ideas and practices reflective of the culturally diverse nature of society

Art making contains within its processes an opportunity to seek and find both purpose and meaning.