incredible losers become incredible masters

      Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote". Marco Rosci states that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time. Read more . . .
      Two excellent videos to show to high school art students at the beginning of the school year. Teach the young, "patience is the virtue that pays in the end."

The Long Game Part 1: Why Leonardo DaVinci was no genius from Delve on Vimeo.

 
The Long Game Part 2: the missing chapter from Delve on Vimeo.

• "Leonardo da Vinci" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.
• Leonardo da Vinci and the Virgin of the Rocks, A different point of view
• Works by Leonardo da Vinci at Project Gutenberg
• Leonardo da Vinci by Maurice Walter Brockwell' at Project Gutenberg
• Complete text & images of Richter's translation of the Notebooks
• Web Gallery of Leonardo Paintings
• Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci
• Da Vinci Decoded Article from The Guardian
• The true face of Leonardo Da Vinci?
• Leonardo da Vinci's Ethical Vegetarianism
• The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
• Leonardo da Vinci at BBC Science
• Yahoo news, 500-year-old Leonardo da Vinci sculpture 'Horse and Rider' unveiled
• Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, Friday, 4 May 2012 to Sunday, 7 October 2012. High-resolution anatomical drawings.

where do "big ideas" come from?

        Who, what, when, where and how do art teachers manage to come up with goals for my child's education? Although this may seem like a mystery for many parents, there is no real mystery to it at all. Goals or Big Ideas in the classroom are derivative of many sources. Parents can learn to think and analyze these goals by considering first the multiple origins of those ideas woven into the thinking processes of art educators who write lesson plans. 

• Human instinct or natural survival are popular sources in the development of big ideas. Parents can recognize these by noting objectives that have to do with fine motor skills and the basic manipulation of materials. These objectives are seen as fundamentally necessary with all people no matter where they come from or what they believe in. Often times state schools encourage their teachers to pursue these goals above all others because it means that they will not need to worry about displeasing parents from culturally diverse backgrounds. However, a teacher who avoids teaching big ideas from any other resources besides these, avoids teaching his students to think about the why of art and this ultimately is a inferior art education. The best art education is based upon a healthy diet including a variety of influences.
• Social or Community Values are usually those politically hot topics driven by all kinds of people from a wide variety of cultures. These big ideas will test the metal of an art teacher. How to teach variety without teaching in a condescending way and without insulting the intelligence of the parents and students in their care, becomes very important in the writing and deliberation of these lesson plans. A good teacher will be very selective here. Remember, no matter what you believe, there will always be someone who is insulted by it somewhere. Students need to be challenged and appreciative of differences in people in order to receive the highest form of art education. My reason for arguing this lies in the fact that students who learn to process through a wide variety of opinions while still maintaining the enduring qualities of their own beliefs are smarter, stronger, and ready to take on many of life's challenges. It is wonderful to keep little ones innocent but this does not mean that they should be naive. I understand that people often use these two words interchangeably but that is not how I am comparing the two. 

To be naive in my experience means that a student lacks wisdom and is easily misled.

To be innocent means that one maintains cultural values that dictate moral convictions.

• The media or the marketplace are often categorized under visual culture in many teaching publications. However, I have listed them apart from the visual culture defined by social groups or from community values. My reason for doing this is because I believe that popular media often represents a powerful subgroup within a specific political party or belief system. These influences may also be, quite frankly, economically driven or laced with some other form of prejudice. The origins for big ideas based upon a wealthy, smaller population that means to influence or propagate private agendas may cause cultural havoc on young impressionable minds. It is probably better to save these lessons for mature students.
• Big ideas have always included some personal agenda in the designing of lesson plans. Personal agenda does not need to be seen as negative. For example; if an art teacher is a sculptor and not a painter, this may increase the number of sculptural lessons that he will teach to your child.  Most teachers educate with those resources that they feel most comfortable with. However, there can be great negativity in personal agendas. If an art teacher does not believe that he has not benefited greatly in his choice of career, he may not teach art with the enthusiasm necessary to encourage your child or to believe in himself.
• Genetics influence art education but to what end we are not very certain. There has been little study in this field in terms of art education as of yet. However, we are aware that the chromosomes specific children receive from their parents do directly influence the way in which they process creative information. Not only do Gardner's theories of education have much to do with this concept but those students born with a disability or who are particularly gifted may also influence the way a teacher writes and implements an art lesson plan.
• Human History influences big ideas tremendously in nearly every lesson plan that your child will be taught. The obvious lessons are those that are based upon a specific artist or a past event.
• Big ideas influenced by philosophy are often categorized as forms of indoctrination. Students are taught to follow and accept those principles common to a particular school of thought or art movement.
• Big ideas specific to psychosomatic education are commonly referred to as age appropriate materials or gender specific materials. Psychosomatic education relies heavily on socialization as well as genetics so this is why I have included it on this list in addition to genetics.

article by Kathy Grimm copyrighted 2012 

the competent teacher

      I am reminded of a remark made to me recently by a gentleman in middle life, a very excellent carpenter, whom I saw watching my boys, twenty-four of them, at work making their first weld in the forging shop. He seemed intensely interested as he watched one of the young men at work. I said: "You seem to like to see the boys work. Do you understand what they are doing?" "Yes, " said he, "I worked a year once in a blacksmith shop." "Well," said I, "then I suppose this operation of welding is a very simple matter to you." "Not at all," said he; "I never made a weld in my life. I never got a chance. I kindled the fire and blew the bellows, and I did some striking for other men; but they never let me try to make a weld." Then he added, with a good deal of feeling, "These boys learn more in one week about the really essential art of forging than I learned in half a year." And the secret of it is they have a thoroughly skilled workman who is competent both to teach and to demonstrate every principle involved.--Calvin M. Woodward

More Related Content:

• Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills Using Real-World Problem Solving
• Practical Skill Sets vs. Traditional Academic Subject Matter 
• Educating the Next Steve Jobs
• School Stores Teach Lifelong Skills
• Teaching Strategies

every art educator should know about sir kenneth robinson

           Sir Kenneth Robinson (Liverpool, 4 March 1950) is an English author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies. He was Director of The Arts in Schools Project (1985–89), Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick (1989–2001), and was knighted in 2003 for services to education.

      Originally from a working-class Liverpool family, Robinson now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Marie-Therese and children James and Kate.

      Born in Liverpool to James and Ethel Robinson, Robinson is one of seven children from a working-class background. After an industrial accident, his father became quadriplegic. Robinson contracted polio at age four. He attended Liverpool Collegiate School (1961–1963), Wade Deacon Grammar School, Cheshire (1963–1968). He then studied English and drama (B.Ed.) at University of Leeds (1968–1972) and completed a PhD in 1981 at the University of London, researching drama and theatre in education.

      From 1985 to 1989, Robinson was Director of The Arts in Schools Project, an initiative to develop the arts education throughout England and Wales. The project worked with over 2,000 teachers, artists, and administrators in a network of over 300 initiatives and influenced the formulation of the National Curriculum in England. During this period, Robinson chaired Artswork, the UK’s national youth arts development agency, and worked as advisor to Hong Kong's Academy for Performing Arts.

      For twelve years, he was professor of education at the University of Warwick, and is now professor emeritus. He has received honorary degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design, Ringling College of Arts and Design, the Open University and the Central School of Speech and Drama, Birmingham City University and the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He has been honored with the Athena Award of the Rhode Island School of Design for services to the arts and education; the Peabody Medal for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States, the LEGO Prize for international achievement in education, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for outstanding contributions to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2005, he was named as one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s "Principal Voices". In 2003, he was made Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts. He speaks to audiences throughout the world on the creative challenges facing business and education in the new global economies.

      In 1998, he led a UK commission on creativity, education, and the economy and his report, All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture, and Education was influential. The Times said of it: "This report raises some of the most important issues facing business in the 21st century. It should have every CEO and human resources director thumping the table and demanding action". Robinson is credited with creating a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, publishing Unlocking Creativity, a plan implemented across the region, and mentored the Oklahoma Creativity Project. In 1998, he chaired the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education.

      A popular speaker at TED conferences, Robinson has given two presentations on the role of creativity in education, viewed by millions. In 2005, Robinson was named as one of Principal Voices (A Time Magazine, Fortune, CNN joint initiative). In 2010, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce animated one of Robinson's speeches about changing "education paradigms". The video was viewed nearly half a million times in its first week on YouTube.

      Learning Through Drama: Report of The Schools Council Drama Teaching (1977) was the result of a three-year national development project for the UK Schools Council. Robinson was principal author of The Arts in Schools: Principles, Practice, and Provision (1982), now a key text on arts and education internationally. He edited The Arts and Higher Education, (1984), co-wrote The Arts in Further Education (1986), Arts Education in Europe, and Facing the Future: The Arts and Education in Hong Kong,.

      Robinson's 2001 book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative (Wiley-Capstone), was described by Director magazine as "a truly mind-opening analysis of why we don’t get the best out of people at a time of punishing change." John Cleese said of it: ‘Ken Robinson writes brilliantly about the different ways in which creativity is undervalued and ignored in Western culture and especially in our educational systems.’

      The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, was published in January 2009 by Penguin. The element refers to the experience of personal talent meeting personal passion. He argues that in this encounter, we feel most ourselves, most inspired, and achieve to our highest level. The book draws on the stories of creative artists such as Paul McCartney, 'Simpsons' creator Matt Groening, Meg Ryan, and physicist Richard Feynman to investigate this paradigm of success. (Wikipedia)

• Sir Ken Robinson's website
• Ken Robinson (educationalist) on Twitter
• Bring on the Learning Revolution!TED Conference Talk, 2010
• Why schools kill creativity-The case for an education system that nurtures creativity: TED Conference talk, Monterey, California, 2006
• In-depth interview on creativity
• Sir Ken Robinson interviewed on Conversations from Penn State
• IMNO Open Source Mentoring interview with Robinson
• Liverpool pupils interview Robinson, 2008
• London students interview Robinson, London International Music Show, 2008
• Podcast interview with DK from MediaSnackers, 2007
• "Changing (Education) Paradigms" by Sir Ken Robinson - video adapted by the Royal Society of Arts
• RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigm
• A New View of Human Capacity at Los Angeles Public Library, January 2009
• The Element discussion at The Aspen Institute, July 2008

who was friedrich fröbel?

       Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (or Froebel)  April 21, 1782 – June 21, 1852) was a German pedagogue, a student of Pestalozzi who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique needs and capabilities. He created the concept of the “kindergarten” and also coined the word now used in German and English. He also developed the educational toys known as Froebel Gifts.  

      Friedrich Fröbel was born at Oberweißbach in the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt in Thuringia. His father, who died in 1802, was the pastor of the orthodox Lutheran (alt-lutherisch) parish there. The church and Lutheran Christian faith were pillars in Fröbel's own early education. Oberweißbach was a wealthy village in the Thuringian Forest and had been known centuries long for its natural herb remedies, tinctures, bitters, soaps and salves. Families had their own inherited areas of the forest where herbs and roots were grown and harvested. Each family prepared, bottled, and produced their individual products which were taken throughout Europe on trade routes passed from father to son, who were affectionately called "Buckelapotheker" or Rucksack Pharmacists. They adorned the church with art acquired from their travels, many pieces of which can still be seen in the renovated structure. The pulpit from which Fröbel heard his father preach is the largest in all Europe and can fit a pastor and 12 men, a direct reference to Christ's apostles.

      Shortly after Fröbel's birth, his mother's health began to fail. She died when he was nine months old, profoundly influencing his life. In 1792, Fröbel went to live in the small town of Stadt-Ilm with his uncle, a gentle and affectionate man. At the age of 15 Fröbel, who loved nature, became the apprentice to a forester. In 1799, he decided to leave his apprenticeship and study mathematics and botany in Jena. From 1802 to 1805, he worked as a land surveyor.

      On 11 September 1818, Fröbel wed Wilhelmine Henriette Hoffmeister (b. 1780) in Berlin. The union was childless. Wilhelmine died in 1839, and Fröbel married again in 1851. His second wife was Louise Levin. 

      He began as an educator in 1805 at the Musterschule (a secondary school) in Frankfurt, where he learnt about Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi’s ideas. He later worked with Pestalozzi in Switzerland where his ideas further developed. From 1806 Fröbel was the live-in teacher for a Frankfurt noble family’s three sons. He lived with the three children from 1808 to 1810 at Pestalozzi’s institute in Yverdon-les-Bains in Switzerland.

      In 1811, Fröbel once again went back to school in Göttingen and Berlin, eventually leaving without earning a certificate. He became a teacher at the Plamannsche Schule in Berlin, a boarding school for boys, and at that time also a pedagogical and patriotic centre.

      During his service in the Lützow Free Corps in 1813 and 1814 – when he was involved in two campaigns against Napoleon – Fröbel befriended Wilhelm Middendorf, a theologian and fellow pedagogue, and Heinrich Langethal, also a pedagogue. After Waterloo and the Congress of Vienna, Fröbel found himself a civilian once again and became an assistant at the Museum of Mineralogy under Christian Samuel Weiss. This did not, however, last very long, and by 1816 he had quit and founded the Allgemeine Deutsche Erziehungsanstalt (“German General Education Institute”) in Griesheim near Arnstadt in Thuringia. A year later he moved this to Keilhau near (now in) Rudolstadt. In 1831, work was continued there by the other cofounders Wilhelm Middendorf and Heinrich Langethal.

      In 1820, Fröbel published the first of his five Keilhau pamphlets, An unser deutsches Volk (“To Our German People”). The other four were published between then and 1823.

      In 1826 he published his main literary work, Die Menschenerziehung (“The Education of Man”) and founded the weekly publication Die erziehenden Familien (“The Educating Families”). In 1828 and 1829 he pursued plans for a people’s education institute (Volkserziehungsanstalt) in Helba (nowadays a constituent community of Meiningen), but they were never realized.

      From 1831 to 1836, Fröbel once again lived in Switzerland. In 1831 he founded an educational institute in Wartensee (Lucerne). In 1833 he moved this to Willisau, and from 1835 to 1836, he headed the orphanage in Burgdorf (Berne), where he also published the magazine Grundzüge der Menschenerziehung (“Features of Human Education”). In 1836 appeared his work Erneuerung des Lebens erfordert das neue Jahr 1836 (“The New Year 1836 Calls For the Renewal of Life”).

He returned to Germany, dedicated himself almost exclusively to preschool child education and began manufacturing playing materials in Bad Blankenburg. In 1837 he founded a care, playing and activity institute for small children in Bad Blankenburg. From 1838 to 1840 he also published the magazine Ein Sonntagsblatt für Gleichgesinnte (“A Sunday Paper for the Like-Minded”).

In 1840 he coined the word kindergarten for the Play and Activity Institute he had founded in 1837 at Bad Blankenburg for young children, together with Wilhelm Middendorf and Heinrich Langethal. These two men were Fröbel’s most faithful colleagues when his ideas were also transplanted to Keilhau near Rudolstadt.

      He designed the educational play materials known as Froebel Gifts, or Fröbelgaben, which included geometric building blocks and pattern activity blocks. A book entitled Inventing Kindergarten, by Norman Brosterman, examines the influence of Friedrich Fröbel on Frank Lloyd Wright and modern art.

      Friedrich Fröbel's great insight was to recognise the importance of the activity of the child in learning. He introduced the concept of “free work” (Freiarbeit) into pedagogy and established the “game” as the typical form that life took in childhood, and also the game’s educational worth. Activities in the first kindergarten included singing, dancing, gardening and self-directed play with the Froebel Gifts. Fröbel intended, with his Mutter- und Koselieder – a songbook that he published – to introduce the young child into the adult world.

      These ideas about childhood development and education were introduced to academic and royal circles through the tireless efforts of his greatest proponent, the Baroness (Freiherrin) Bertha Marie von Marenholtz-Bülow. Through her Fröbel made the acquaintance of the Royal House of the Netherlands, various Thuringian dukes and duchesses, including the Romanov wife of the Grand Duke von Sachsen-Weimar. Baroness von Marenholtz-Bülow, Duke von Meiningen and Fröbel gathered donations to support art education for children in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Goethe. The Duke of Meiningen granted the use of his hunting lodge, called Marienthal (the Vale of Mary) in the resort town of Bad Liebenstein for Fröbel to train the first women as Kindergarten teachers (called Kindergärtnerinnen).

      Fröbel died on 21 June 1852 in Marienthal, now a constituent community of Schweina. His grave can still be found in the cemetery at Schweina, where his widow, who died in Hamburg, was also buried on 10 January 1900.

      Fröbel’s idea of the kindergarten found appeal, but its spread in Germany was thwarted by the Prussian government, whose education ministry banned it on 7 August 1851 as “atheistic and demagogic” for its alleged “destructive tendencies in the areas of religion and politics”. Other states followed suit. The reason for the ban, however, seems to have been a confusion of names. Fröbel’s nephew Karl Fröbel had written and published Weibliche Hochschulen und Kindergärten (“Female Colleges and Kindergartens”), which apparently met with some disapproval. To quote Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, “The stupid minister von Raumer has decreed a ban on kindergartens, basing himself on a book by Karl Fröbel. He is confusing Friedrich and Karl Fröbel.”

      Fröbel’s student Margarethe Schurz founded the first kindergarten in the United States at Watertown, Wisconsin in 1856, and she also inspired Elizabeth Peabody, who went on to found the first English-speaking kindergarten in the United States – the language at Schurz’s kindergarten had been German, to serve an immigrant community – in Boston in 1860. This paved the way for the concept’s spread in the USA. The German émigré Adolph Douai had also founded a kindergarten in Boston in 1859, but was obliged to close it after only a year. By 1866, however, he was founding others in New York City.

      The pedagogue August Köhler was the initiator and cofounder in 1863 of the Deutscher Fröbelverein (“German Fröbel Association”), first for Thuringia, out of which grew the Allgemeiner Fröbelverein (“General Fröbel Association”) in 1872, and a year later the Deutscher Fröbelverband (“German Fröbel Federation”). August Köhler critically analyzed and evaluated Fröbel theory, adopted fundamental notions into his own kindergarten pedagogy and expanded on these, developing an independent “Köhler Kindergarten Pedagogy”. He first trained kindergarten teachers in Gotha in 1857. In the beginning, Köhler had thought to engage male educators exclusively, but far too few applied.

      Thekla Naveau founded in October 1853 the first kindergarten in Sondershausen and on 1 April 1867 the first kindergarten after the Prussian ban was lifted in Nordhausen.

      Angelika Hartmann founded in 1864 the first kindergarten after Fröbel’s model in Köthen, Anhalt.

In 1908 and 1911, kindergarten teacher training was recognized in Germany through state regulatory laws.

      In the meantime, there are many kindergartens in Germany named after Fröbel that continue his pedagogy. Many of them have sprung from parental or other private initiatives. The biggest Fröbel association, Fröbel e.V., today runs more than 100 kindergartens and other early childhood institutions throughout the country through the Fröbel-Gruppe.

      Committed to Fröbel’s legacy is also the Neuer Thüringer Fröbelverein (NTFV; “New Thuringian Fröbel Association”), and in particular to protecting the legacy’s business receipts. As well, the Association runs a school museum and the Fröbel Archive in Keilhau. Furthermore it engages itself in Fröbel institutions worldwide (United States, United Kingdom, Japan). Through this network, the NTFV further continues one of the most prominent lines of modern pedagogy from the authentic “Fröbel town” of Keilhau. The Fröbel Diploma, now conferred by the Fröbel Academy in Rudolstadt, can also be traced back to the NTFV. All this ensures that Fröbel’s ideas will live on into the future.

      Fröbel’s building forms and movement games are also forerunners of abstract art as well as a source of inspiration to the Bauhaus movement. In Fröbel’s honour, Walter Gropius designed the Friedrich Fröbel Haus.

      In 1892 followers of Fröbel established a college of teacher education in South West London to continue his traditions. Froebel College is now a constituent college of Roehampton University and is home to the university's department of education. The University of Roehampton Library is also home to the Froebel Archive for Childhood Studies, a collection of books, archives, photographs, objects and multi-media materials, centring on Friedrich Fröbel’s educational legacy, early years and elementary education. The Demonstration School, originally located at Colet Court, Kensington, has evolved into Ibstock Place School, Roehampton.

• Friedrich Fröbel in the German National Library catalogue
• Heinrich Heppe (1878) (in German). "Fröbel, Friedrich". In Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). 8. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 123–124.
• "Friedrich Fröbel" (in German). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL).

• Froebel College, Roehampton University, London
• Ibstock Place School (formerly Ibstock Place, The Froebel School)
• Froebel Education Centre – Demonstration School for The Froebel Institute
• Studying the Creation of Kindergarten
• Information about Friedrich Fröbel
• Friedrich Fröbel website
• Friedrich Fröbel (1782–1852) and the Fröbel Movement
• Friedrich Fröbel: His life and influence on education
• Fröbel's chief writings on education – online
• Friedrich Fröbel’s letters
• Fröbel-Gruppe
• How to make a Fröbel star
•  "Fröbel, Friedrich Wilhelm August". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
• Works by or about Friedrich Fröbel in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• How to make a Froebel star?
• Friedrich Froebel Memorial

assigning meaning and purpose to art

      Art has had many unique, different, reasons for being created. Some of these functions of Art are summarized in the outline below. Evaluating the artistic purpose of an artwork based upon the original intent of the artist or their culture is vital to the greater understanding of all human cultures. What we perceive as non-motivated functions of art or as motivated functions of art may be defined by our own perceptions of "value" thus creating a false perspective about multiple societies, cultures, and belief systems on the whole. This is why it is important to understand the original intent of an artist in order to teach the meaning of his art appropriately. The original intent of an artist does not necessarily mean that one can’t enjoy or appreciate the art that one does not share a common interest in or belief with those who created it. Original intent is an argument made in defense of correct history. In fact one of the greatest purposes of art is to teach us about ourselves. We cannot learn about ourselves if we are dishonest or if we misinterpret the meaning behind the artworks’ creation in order to satisfy an argument that the original artist never intended to be addressed within venue of their own experiences.

      If students give meaning or assign purposes for creating art themselves, they will feel more inclined to persevere with their assignments. There should be a balance between my opinions and those ideas my students have about the creative process. Because my students have many experiences and beliefs of their own, it is by far more advantageous for me to design lessons that give them license for broad interpretations. I never hesitate to superimpose an academic perspective of issues when my students’ education is at stake, however, I do try to make room for their personal opinions as well.

      I hope that people who read here will discover that there are as many purposes to art as there are reasons for communication with others. I've listed below a few of the most common purposes found in both my own culture and the culture of many other peoples. Certainly any number of these purposes may be true of more than one single artwork. Before planning my own art curriculum, I reflect on the purpose of the lesson seriously. I make a list of “pros and cons” for the project and try to think about it objectively. This kind of study will helps me to improve the “way” I teach and the “whys” for my instructions.

1. Religious purposes of art – Art created in a religious context is used to inspire or interpret spiritual experiences, beliefs, covenants, religious institutions and ideas. Some cultures develop elaborate symbolism or process to mirror their philosophy or theology illustrated by an artwork. 
2. Commercial purposes of art – The commercial purposes of art are intended to influence people to spend money. Sometimes deception or the manipulation of a select group is predetermined by a business industry in order to solicit money from them. Not all commercial purposes are negative. Sometimes commercial industry meets the true, actualized needs of others. A good example of this would be to create art that markets important medicine.
3. Aesthetic purposes of art – Aestheticism is the pursuit of a positive idealistic concept in art. Aesthetic artworks vary widely from culture to culture.
4. Decorative purposes of art – Decorative purposes in art are often confused with aesthetic purposes but, they are not the same. For an artwork to be “decorative” it is generally thought appealing but it does not necessarily illustrate an idealistic point of view. Generally speaking, decorative works are produced through ritualized pattern making.
5. *Utilitarian purposes of art – A utilitarian artwork serves two or more purposes at the same time. The quilt, being produced by an artist, may demonstrate aesthetic qualities or decorative purposes but, it is also crafted for the purpose of keeping someone warm. In utilitarian artworks there is always a practical applied reason for that artwork to be made apart from it’s artistic purposes. An iron may be designed beautifully but it’s other aim is to smooth out wrinkles with heat. 
6. Meditation purposes of art – Art that is the result of meditation looks different depending upon the artist who creates it. In Christianity meditation may be contemplative or resemble great study. To create a meditative purpose in their artwork is to “infill their own spirit with multiple pieces of information.” Whereas, in religious meditative practices of Buddhists, to meditate is to “empty out” the thinking process. So these artistic purposes of meditation are accurately represented as containing less information. In both cases, however, the end result of the meditation is the artwork that is the result of the meditation.
7. Therapeutic purposes of art – Therapeutic purposes in art are intended to be used by those who participate in them as a form of catharsis. A purification or purgation of their emotions such as pity or fear. These purposes are generally conceived to be ridding the artist of “unwanted” ideas. It is a purging process for a Christian and should not be confused with Christian meditation.
8. Political purposes of art – A political artwork is made in reference to government or a political system. It could be negative or positive depending on the artist’s point of view.
9. Academic purposes of art – Academic artworks are produced by or for the purposes of an institution of higher learning. Many times, artists perceive Avant-garde artworks as having strong ties to academic purposes. However, academic purposes are always defined by a faculty and these may change given the members of the faculty at present.
10. Avant-garde purposes of art – An avant-garde work pushes the known boundaries of acceptable art. These boundaries could be about revolution, culture or politics. It just depends upon the predisposition of the artist himself.
11. Historical purposes of art – This purpose of historical art is to retell actualized events that have taken place in the form of a visual reference.
12. Intimate purposes of art – Intimate purposes in art works primarily reflect the individual needs of the person creating the artwork.
13. Folk art purposes of art – These are sometimes historical but often are stories relating an event or idea that are conceived from a less educated point of technical skill in an artist and also have a tendency to give a story teller’s point of view in depiction. Whereas historical works are believed to be less about the beliefs of those painting them than they are about the facts relating the event.
14. Illustrative purposes of art – These purposes are to demonstrate things, people and places as these appear to the human eye.
15. Entertainment purposes of art - The purpose of the art of entertainment is to occupy people(s) with art that diverts their attention from daily routine and labor. This is a very broad category for "purpose" because there are so many alternative views of entertainment. Some of these views are very destructive and some are harmless. "Entertainment'' can be loosely defined in American culture. It is usually dictated by those who are promoting their own agendas. 

*Utilitarian in the arts is derivative of the word util-i-ty from Middle English. It is not used in context with the word utilitarianism which is a theory.

article copyrighted 20011 by Grimm