Visual Thinking, Art, and University Teaching across Disciplines

Abstract

Visual Thinking, Art, and University Teaching Across DisciplinesH OW MIGHT VIEWING and discussing art be relevant to university curricula across disciplines? This was one of my fundamental questions when I became the fi rst director of academic programs at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, in August 2010. My overarching inquiry was how could my work demonstrate that university art museums truly matter to their parent institutions, particularly in terms of teaching and learning?These were urgent matters at Brandeis, where the community was in crisis over its art. Less than two years earlier, President Jehuda Reinharz and the board of trustees voted to close the Rose and sell its distinguished collection of modern and contemporary art in response to a fi nancial crisis. Many on campus vigorously protested, believing that shuttering the museum and selling the art was tantamount to cutting a limb from the body of the university. Others viewed the Rose merely a jewel box, an entity of the contemporary art world with little impact on the education of students. For those at the university's helm, the collection's perceived monetary value had displaced its aesthetic, historical, scholarly, pedagogical, experiential, and any other possible value. Rendered without community input, the decision backfi red, resulting in a public relations disaster and lawsuit. The museum went into a state of precarious limbo. When Frederick Lawrence was hired as president in 2010, he put rebuilding the Rose at the center of his agenda, initiating a lengthy process of transition and renewal. (For an overview of the crisis at the Rose, see art historian Nancy J. Scott's 2012 article.)As an institution, the Rose was severely damaged, understaff ed, and underfunded, but the collection was intact. We had art, great art-one of the fi nest holdings of modern and contemporary art at any university in the country. I defi ned my charge as proving how and why the experience of art from the collection, and in the Rose's temporary exhibitions, could be core to the principles and activities embodied by a Brandeis education. One of my key tools in this endeavor was Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a research-based teaching method succinctly described by Philip Yenawine and Alexa Miller in their companion article.Art historians, studio artists, and museum professionals understand art as relevant across disciplines because art is a medium through which major questions about the world around us and the meaning of life are posed and provisionally answered. We argue, with good evidence, that art is intricately connected to overlapping social, political, economic, and broader cultural contexts as well as its own context and,

Visual Thinking Strategies: Teachers' Reflections on Closely Reading Complex Visual Texts Within the Disciplines

“…Studies have revealed that VTS was effective for improving writing (Franco & Unrath, ; Moeller, Cutler, Fiedler, & Weier, ), critical thinking (Landorf, ; Moeller et al., , Yenawine & Miller, ), and encouraging risk taking (Franco & Unrath, ; Landorf, ). In companion articles, Hailey () and Yenawine and Miller supported the use of VTS across disciplines. The strategies are useful across disciplines because “VTS does not teach what to think, but rather supports the discoveries students make when they are given opportunities to think in various ways” (Yenawine & Miller, , p. 3).…”

Understanding Visual Literacy: The Visual Thinking Strategies Approach

“…Versions for middle school and high school are being tested. Variations have been devised for use in museum teaching, university classes (Miller and Yenawine 2014;Hailey 2014), medical education (see next page), and the professional world.…”

Developing Leadership Capacity Using Visual Thinking Strategies

“…The facilitator thanks the group for their participation (Hailey et al, 2015) This set of discursive practices of VTS is closely related to leadership practices. VTS can result in empowering participants to communicate and recognize multiple perspectives (Hailey, 2014). Asking an open-ended question such as "What is going on in this picture?…”

“…for intentionally selected images with elements that could be interpreted variously offers an opportunity to develop an ability to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty (Hailey, 2014;Yenawine & Miller, 2014). In this regard, by engaging in VTS sessions, students can develop skills for dealing with complex information, navigating adaptive challenges (Heifetz, 1994), and divergent set of meanings and interpretations (Barge & Fairhurst, 2008).…”

“…Consequently, students can advance their leadership capacity by engaging in VTS sessions over time. (Hailey, 2014).…”