INQUIRY BASED LEARNING

ADVANCED ART (40S) - INQUIRY

Here is the information you need for your Independent Inquiry Projects.

Please read the guidelines carefully. You are responsible to know the information on this page!

As discussed in the first days of class, most of your projects this year will be inquiry*-based and choice-based - which means you will design them yourself, following a few guidelines. They all need to begin with meaningful personal themes and topics. Some of these will be initiated / prompted by me, and some will be your own to decide. All inquiry topics provided by me will be flexible and open, but will provide structure for those who prefer it. These projects are meant to be a chance for you to challenge yourself artistically in a way you haven’t yet.

* “Inquiry” means investigation; or looking for information. This means that you cannot resort to doing the same thing you've done before! You need to develop something NEW... !

Remember that your project must demonstrate skills in the four learning areas that we have been developing since Art 20G...

Making (developing skills in 'artmaking' - in technique and design)
Creating (developing your projects innovatively, finding meaningful connections, and expanding on initial ideas)
Connecting (knowing about artists and art, and why art is important, understanding your own process, influences and choices)
Responding (being able to look critically, and analyze and reflect on your own work and the work of others)

To begin your inquiry journey, choose an area of investigation that interests you. You may choose from the list of four learning areas above (#1-4) or choose from this list of thematic inquiry areas:

THE CREATIVE INQUIRY
PROCESS INVOLVES...

Generating ideas that will grow and change and develop as you work
Finding your own motivation to learn by choosing topics and themes that are relevant and meaningful to you
Maintaining a dedicated, focused and open creative process throughout hours of studio time
Researching and investigating to expand your knowledge, understanding and experiences/skills
Experimenting and playing with media, techniques and tools
Collaborating with other artists to grow and change your ideas and skills
Analyzing your own work to edit and make changes

KEEP IN MIND:

It is incredibly important to ASK QUESTIONS while you're working. e.g. How does the medium art artist chooses affect the audience's interpretation of their work? Who gives an artwork meaning, the artist or the audience?
Inquiry is a PROCESS - it takes time to develop and it's not predictable. I will help you by introducing a ton of introductory (igniting) activities to get you thinking! Follow your instincts and your curiosities down the rabbit hole.
Copying images from the internet might be a technical challenge for you but it doesn’t expand your ability to be creative. It is also called “plagiarism” - and if you hand these pieces in as your own, with no credit given to the original artist, it will not be marked for credit.

In class, you will be expected to behave like an ARTIST. This means using class time to do research for your work, sketch, develop your artwork, consult with (and get feedback from) me or other artists in the room, refine your piece, etc.
During the artmaking process, some students may find that they are quite independent and very aware of their own needs and creative processes, and can create their own schedules. Some may need much more teacher intervention in order to be successful. If you have not taken art classes at FRC before, you may fall into the latter group. Please ask for help / guidance when you need it. :)
If something seems interesting but challenging / scary, it's probably exactly what you should spend time on developing.

The Key to Success...

I must be able to see and/or hear EVIDENCE of the following areas in class. (Some of this may be created in your idea journal and some may happen outside of it.)

Evidence of your initial QUESTIONS... Start by asking some big questions. e.g. What shapes our identity? Is it a fixed thing, or something constantly changing over time? or Who writes history? Whose voices are we not hearing? or In what ways do artists work with restrictions and rules? How might restrictions or rules help me to form ideas? How might they limit what I do?
Evidence of IDEA DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTIGATION... Imagining and generating ideas for art (including collected research on something NEW TO YOU… a new medium, new idea, new topic/theme, new artist you found, etc.). Brainstorming is the process of working through and expanding an idea you have chosen to work on. If you are feeling that brainstorming is a waste of your time, you are definitely not doing it right! It is incredibly important that you start by brainstorming and developing an idea that has VALUE. (personal value - meaning that you personally CARE about it) If you choose to write, you should work as if you’re “thinking out loud” on paper. Think of it as a journal of your ideas and your thinking. This collection is EVIDENCE of your artistic process. (I can’t read your mind… so if you’ve thought about your project, and worked through ideas, found images for inspiration, there should be evidence somewhere!)
Evidence of EXPLORATION AND EXPERIMENTATION... It is important that you PLAY – with ideas, with materials, with design. We have an art room full of supplies for you to use - but keep in mind, artists do not just use what's in front of them... they find, collect, and seek out the materials they need to make their visions come to life. I encourage you to collect other things related to your ideas and/or bring them from home. Sometimes the exploration and experimentation will happen with art supplies and media - and sometimes it's done through writing, collecting, manipulating materials or objects, etc. Every artist's process is different. During this phase, you'll start making decisions about media. (What are you going to use to make your work?) At the end of the project, you will be expected to hand in all your preparatory work (brainstorming, writing, sketches, planning, notes, “thinking on paper”, compositional drawings, illustrations of the project plans, diagrams or sketches of various ideas for the project, failed attempts, goofing around, etc) and any images or text you used as inspiration / reference (from the internet, your own photos, magazines, etc).
Evidence of CREATION and PRODUCTION... Develop your artwork. Allow it to change and grow as you work. Accept serendipitous discoveries and "happy accidents". Relish in the ambiguity that is creation... and bring it to a point where it is ready to present it to others. As you refine and edit your work, it is important that you strive for “gallery-worthy” art; a standard which is higher than the work you did in Grade 10 and 11. Students should always aim to “best” themselves, and push their creative limits. Your final piece should be ready to hang/display in an art show. It will need to have a title (you can put this on a sticky note on the back). We will have class critiques (during the process and after you're done).
Evidence of REFLECTION... evaluating your own work once you’re done, considering your intentions and any discoveries you made along the way. Sometimes we can't know exactly what our work is about until long after it's done. That's okay. Just collect your thoughts and try to make sense of your journey.

***Any projects that are done at home, which I did not witness you developing during studio time, will not be marked. Students who arrive to class on time, use their studio time productively, and keep in communication with me will never have trouble meeting deadlines. For students who have taken on incredibly large / detailed projects – in situations where more than 20 hours of work time would be required to be successful), allowances will be made (ahead of time) for extensions.

What is Inquiry?

ADVANCED ART (40S) - INQUIRY

The Key to Success...