First Love
Photo collage
In
my art technique classes, I developed the habit of devoting part of the first
class to conducting an oral questionnaire. I asked students the same short
series of questions about their previous experience as art students. I did this
because their answers helped me determine the sequence, depth and speed of the
instruction. It also served to help me compare their assessment of their own
ability and knowledge to their actual skill levels (for instance, as ‘beginner’,
‘intermediate’ or ‘advanced’).
I
found as a result of this process that people inevitably base their concept of
their skill, and therefore their expectation of achievement, on the number of
classes they have taken rather than on the level of understanding or facility
they have achieved. I discovered that many adults are unaware of the real
extent of their knowledge about art, and that they too often form opinions and
pass judgements about their own and other people’s based only on assumptions
and impressions gleamed form an incomplete artistic education.
Given
these findings, I have developed a more in-depth questionnaire to be used to
help people relating to art examine their exposure to it, and hopefully lead
them to an understanding of their relationship to it as adults. It aims to lead
people to remember, relive and discover aspects of their art exposure as
children, or more usually lack thereof, about which they might not have been
aware.
There
is no time limit to this questionnaire. Respondents might even wish to return
to it at different times. New questions may be added at will. As they consider
the answers to each question, or as they consider the experience of answering
the questionnaire as a whole, respondents might especially note the
implications of ‘no’ answers.
The Art Experience Questionnaire
As
you remember and revisit your childhood:
1.
What would you say was your
first aesthetic experience?
2.
What did you think of as
‘art’ when you were a child?
3.
At what age did your
opinion about ‘art’ change? What experience or experiences changed it?
4.
Do you know if your parents
purchased original, one-of-a-kind works of art for your home? If so, please
describe.
5.
Do you know if your parents
purchased limited-edition works of art for your home? If so, please describe.
6.
Do you know if your parents
purchased mass-produced, decorative, non-functional objects for your home? If
so, please describe.
7.
Do you know if your parents
purchased and collected objects they valued purely for their design or
appearance and which they displayed in your home? If so, please describe.
8.
Do you know if your parents
made original art objects that you saw displayed in your home? If so, please
describe.
9.
Do you know if your parents
created craft objects that you saw displayed in your home? Did they attend
classes or belonf to a studio to do so? If so, please describe.
10.
Do you know if your parents
made art or craft objects at home? Did you watch them? Did you work with them?
11.
Would you say the art or
decorative objects in your home were mostly representative of a particular
culture or of various cultures? If
so, please describe.
12.
Did your parents purchase
posters or books about art or artists? Did you look at them? What types of
posters or books were they?
13.
Did your parents purchase
books, magazines or other publications they valued for their photographs,
pictures or illustrations? If so, please describe. Did you look at them with
your parents? Did you look alone?
14.
Did your parents collect or
watch what you would call ‘art’ films’? If so, did you watch with them? Did you
discuss them? Which did you like/dislike?
15.
What kinds of movies did
your parents watch? Did you watch with them? Did they discuss these with or in
front of you?
16.
What kinds of TV shows did
your parents watch? Did you watch with them? Did they talk about these with or
in front of you?
17.
What programs did your siblings watch
on TV? Did you watch with them> What did you like/dislike about them?
18.
Did your parents regularly
listen to music? If so, what kind? Did you enjoy it? Did they collect albums or
tapes?
19.
Did you learn a musical
instrument? If so, which?
20.
Did you take singing or
dance lessons? What kind?
21.
Did you ever perform in a
play? Where? For whom?
22.
Did your parents dance or
watch dance events in theatres or
on television? If so, what kind? Did they listen to opera? Did they do
to the theatre? Did they take you to any of these?
23.
Did your parents purchase
art or decorative objects while on vacation in other places? If so, please
describe.
24.
Which art or decorative
objects in your home impressed you the most?
25.
Were any art or decorative
objects your parents purchased kept in your room? If so, please describe.
26.
Did you have objects you
purchased or collected for yourself purely because you found them visually
pleasing? If so, please describe.
27.
What objects did you
collect because they had particular associations or memories? What happened to
them?
28.
Were there books in your
room? Were you read to? Do you remember if there was a moment when you read the
books rather than just looked at the illustrations?
29.
When and what did you read
alone for the pleasure of it?
30.
How much time did your
spend watching television per week? What kind of programs did you enjoy? Were
you allowed to watch them?
31.
Did you visit museums or
galleries with your family? When? How often?
32.
Were art-making materials
easily accessible to you in the home? What were they?
33.
Was there an area of the
house you were allowed to ‘mess up’ with paint, glue or other art materials?
34.
Did you spend time alone at
home drawing, painting or doing other artwork? If so, please describe. How
often? Did you preserve these? Were any framed and/ or displayed in the house?
Where?
35.
Is there a time when you
stopped drawing or painting for its own sake? Was there a particular reason?
36.
Did your parents enrol you
in any after school or weekend art classes? If so what kind, where and how
regularly?
37.
What skills did you pick up
most easily in after school or weekend art classes?
38.
Did your after school or
weekend art teachers identify themselves as artists? Did they ever show you
their work? If so, what did you thing of seeing it?
39.
Did you have art classes in
elementary school? What was their
format? What kind of work did you do?
40.
What would you say was your
favourite ‘work of art? Where did you come across it? Is it still a favourite?
41.
Did you enjoy your
in-school art classes? If not, why not? If you did, what do you remember most
fondly about them?
42.
What media did you use?
43.
Did your teachers discuss
art history? What do you remember most, if anything?
44.
Did you enjoy one medium or
approach you learned more than the others?
45.
Did your in-school art
teachers identify themselves as artists? Did they show you their work? If so,
what did you thing of it?
46.
Is there an artist whose
body of work was familiar to you? If so, who was it? What was the work and what
did you think about it?
47.
Did you visit museums or
galleries with your elementary school classes? Did you discuss what you saw?
Were you asked for your impressions?
48.
Did you ever meet a
professional artist in or out of school? If so, describe the experience.
49.
Did you feel satisfied by
your art experiences in elementary school? If so, what did you like most about
it? If not, what did you miss or wish for?
50.
What did you think of your
artistic ability by the time you entered high school? What confirmed this
opinion?
Which of the experiences touched upon
in the previous questions are
reflected:
1.
In the way you decorate
your home now?
2.
In your attitude towards
art now?
3.
In the way you educate your
children about art (if you have any) now?
4.
In the way you look at or
think about art now?
5.
In the things you want to learn
about art now?
6.
In the way you make art
now?
7.
In your attitudes towards
art history, aesthetics, art criticism or the art market?
8.
In your opinions about
art’s place and potential relative to society?
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