Dear DRN members.
Please forgive this rather long first message, however, I am writing with an urgent inquiry! I am looking for information about the decline of drawing instruction at the university level (in programs of art, architecture, and design), and in art education at the elementary and secondary levels. I am writing about the situation and need data as well as examples.
Along with doing research and writing about the history and theory of drawing instruction, I am concerned about the situation at the university from which I just retired. For the past 20 years, the Fine Arts program required two foundation drawing classes plus a figure drawing class of all Bachelor of Fine Arts majors. However, with the retirement of several faculty including myself, plus three others originally from the UK, the department initially dropped the figure drawing requirement, then Drawing II. After a split between the Fine Arts and Design Departments, design students are now only required to take one semester of drawing. Only Illustration retains a substantial set of required drawing courses. From what I have heard and found in a random search of similar institutions online, this is often the case in the US.
In response, a former colleague and I are preparing a survey on changes in drawing requirements among members of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. the US accrediting organization. NASAD told us that they never did such a survey and didn't know of any, and so far, we have failed to find any studies in the US or elsewhere.
Even so, I continue to hear rumors about this phenomenon in the US at FATE conferences (Foundations of Art Theory and Education) and internationally through the "Thinking Through Drawing" research network, and at the DRN conference, 'Drawing in the University Today' (University of Oporto). Please let me know if you have any information about this question: articles, books, research studies, or examples of other institutions where this is happening, etc.
Also, in an article I am writing that mentions this situation, a reviewer wrote that I should look into two issues in the UK, both of which I have so far failed to find anything about: 1) "recent government decisions [that] have limited the access to study drawing in the UK at secondary level." 2) the" rise of drawing an autonomous subject in the early 1990's as a backlash to drawing endorsed as a 'preparatory' stage for other fine art disciplines... This led to the rise in drawing research and the first dedicated University level programs in the UK and in the Antipodes."
I am aware of some University level programs through friends from the UK who studied in them, but need some general information about their origins, aims, etc. After a failed search for information on line, I'm not sure now where to look.
Any response to the general question above, the specific questions below, or preferably both, will be most welcome!
Thanks,
Seymour Simmons
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