By Ashwaq Mishari (with photos)
KUWAIT, Jan 29 (KUNA) - European sociologists believe that cultural needs are the outcome of nurturing and that the cultural activities such as visiting museums and art galleries, choices related to literature, arts and music are determined by how educated the individual is.
This fact along with others, stress on the inevitable association of teaching artistic taste of the generations with the kind of curricula that the child receives in his early ages till he goes to college.
KUNA has met with number of academics and researchers specialized in Arts who called for placing greater emphasis on art classes especially that these kinds of classes enhance students taste and develop it.
Kuwaiti society is to blame as it does not look at art as a profession and so art has not reached the sought level, head of Arts Department in the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training Dr. Abdullah Al-Haddad stated, adding that the responsibility is to be shared between the Department of Arts and other society organizations and institutes.
As for updating curricula, Al-Haddad said that it is a three-phase procedure; the first was increasing the years of study, so now it takes art students four instead of two years to graduate.
Phase two he said came to prepare the curricula so it can keep up with market demand and changes instead of following the old policy which goes with either the American Schooling System or the International Academic Accreditation.
Phase three has not been approved yet by the executive board, it involves however new ideas and suggestions that help in developing and updating curricula.
Art curricula have not been updated or altered, courses were given new name but they are still the same content-wise while some goals are added to the curricula, Researcher and Critic Mona Al-Shaya told KUNA.
She suggested for a practicum to be added to photography and paining classes in which students visit museums and galleries, conducting studies and researches on different ------- styles, better art training, putting plans to develop the independent creative identity of the student.
"Variety of sources is a critical factor in making art critic" Al-Shaya said, adding that art could never develop without criticism. (end) asm.abd.aia KUNA 291521 Jan 09NNNN