 | | | | | | |
| ||||||
| Growing Up In The Arts | ||||||
| ||||||
| Frank Oppenheimer, Exploratorium Reprinted from “The National Elementary Principal, Vol 56, Number 1, Sept/Oct 1976 | ||||||
 | ||||||
| ||||||
| Dr. Oppenheimer was invited to participate in the Rockefeller Foundation Forum on the Arts in Education, which was held in New York City in October 1975. He was unable to attend the forum but replied at length to Junius Eddy's letter of invitation, spelling out his experiences with the arts and some of the lessons extracted from those experiences. Here is Dr. Oppenheimer's letter. The Editors | ||||||
 | ||||||
 | ||||||
| I regret that it is impractical for me to come to New York next week to attend your conference on art education. But here, as I promised, are some of my reflections on the subject. I must start with a disclaimer. I have never even attempted to teach anyone how to draw, paint, or compose. There is a great deal that I do not understand about art. In particular, I have no notion of why music is so important to people. I know that it is it important and that it changes people's lives and feelings, but I do not know why or how. Many of the formal aspects of the graphic arts must have an impact in much the same way music does. For example, I know that Turkish people are moved by elaborate formal and nonrepresentational grilles and mosaics similar to the way I am moved by music But I do not understand why these elaborate and infinitely varying geometric forms have such an impact. I have wandered around Istanbul with Turkish friends, and I know that this form of art can be very important I grew up as a disciple of Roger Frye, and I still retain the conviction that the form and discipline imposed by the medium are essential elements in all forms of art. I, therefore, believe that an awareness of the role of form and discipline should develop through the process of art education. Yet I have no | ||||||
| suggestions about how this awareness can or should be developed. There are some aspects of my education in music that are probably relevant to education in the graphic arts. I am a flute player but not really a trained musician. I started learning the flute at the age of fifteen because I heard a flutist playing the theme of some piece at one of Walter Damrosch's concerts for young people, and I was captivated by the sound of the flute. My flute playing was not at all connected with school. The important aspect of this education concerns the circumstances that nurtured a self-motivated education. First, my parents took me seriously. They bought me a flageolet that was chromatically versatile but simple to play. I learned to play | ||||||