Arts & Entertainment
Shaun Sartin/Daiiy Nebraskan
ABOVE: Fulani medicine bag
LEFT; This Batik depicts a daily chore of
Nigerian women.
BELOW: Ekto mask was used as protec
tion and represented authority before the
European Colonization started in the late
1800s and early 1900s.
^ Shaun Sartln Dailv Nebraskan
Nigerian artwork exhibited
By John °ayne
Staff Reporter
African art and craft work, particu
larly that of Nigeria, is growing in popu
larity among western cultures. Often
expressive of traditional native life,
Nigerian folklore almost always influ
ences its art.
Of course, those who visit the exhibit
of Nigerian art at the Nebraska Union
will get a taste of that country’s culture,
but Joseph Akpan, president of the Nige
rian Students Association, says that stu
dents should take the time to find out
about African art
Every item at the display has some
history behind it, Akpan said.
“We are thinking about opening our
membership to all that are interested in
Nigerian affairs, not just Nigerians,”
Akpan said. The NS A is considering this
in part to make more people culturally
aware, he said.
Akpan said the Nigerian attire on
hand at the display is “very typical” of
his homeland. The colorful “tie-dyed”
shirts are loose and cool to accommodate
the African climate.
7 think that we will
be offering a very
broad (spectrum of
art), ranging from
the traditional to the
modem.’
— Akpan
Video footage of traditional dances
and secret society rituals also can be seen
at the display. Akpan described one of
the dances being shown as a “skinny
bride” dance. He explained to some of
the viewers that in many Nigerian tribes,
if a tribesman’s bride-to-be is deemed by
the tribe to be too thin, she is taken for a
length of time lobe “fattened up,” until
she is thought to be ready f jr marriage.
It is important to remember, however,
that Nigerian artwork does not consist
entirely of tribal war masks and hand
made jewelry. Intricate woodworking
and painting also will be on hand this
week at the Nebraska Union.
Many stereotypical attitudes about
African art will be dispelled this week,
Akpan said.
“I think that we will be offering a
very broad (spectrum of art), ranging
from the traditional to the modern,” he
said.
Also of interest is a collection of
Nigerian currency, with an accompany
ing book about the country’s monetary
system both before and after the British
colonization of Nigeria.
Shaun Sartin/Daliy Nabraakan
Grant helps fund‘What is art?’courses for schools
By Mark Lage
Senior Reporter
A deceptively simple yet important ques
tion - what is art? — is one that has been
debated for centuries, and is currently the topic
of heated discussions in the nation’s capitol in
relation to the controversy currently surround
ing the National Endowment for the Arts.
“Serrano (creator of “Piss Christ,’’ the
controversial photograph which has sparked
much of the debate over the NEA) puts a plastic
crucifix in a jar, urinates in the jar, takes a
picture of it, and calls it art,’’ said Sheila
Brown, fine arts consultant for the Nebraska
Department of Education. “But is it art?’ ’
‘ * It (the NEA controversy) is really the same
question as this,” Brown said, pointing to a
picture of a Pablo Picasso sculpture in which a
bicycle seat and handlebars are arranged to
resemble a longhorn’s head and horns. “Is this
art?” Brown asked.
Brown is also the director of Prairie Visions:
The Nebraska Consortium for Discipline
Based Art Education (DBAE), a group that
hopes to have Nebraskans debating this ques
tion at an earlier age than ever before -- in
elementary school -- and to continue the debate
throughout high school.
The consortium, made up of Nebraska high
schools, museums, universities, and educa
tional service units, is using a grant from the
Getty Center for Education in the Arts to
change the way that visual arts are taught in
Nebraska schools.
The group was founded two years ago by
the Nebraska Department of Education and the
Nebraska Art Teachers Association. The
groups wrote a joint proposal to the Getty
Center on their art education ideas for Ne
braska, and, based on the proposal, they re
ceived the Getty Center grant, Brown said.
The grant provides Prairie Visions with
$625,000, paid in five annual increments.
“And we’re arranging $475,000 more from
foundations and other private sources in Ne
braska,’’ Brown said.
The grant requires the consortium to raise
matching funds during the five-year period.
Altogether, “that’s a lot of money,’ ’ Brown
said.
“The goal (of Prairie Visions) is to make art
a part of K-12 general education, ’ ’ Brown said.
“And you can underline that as many times as
you like.”
Prairie Visions is basing its approach on
DB AE, which is a new structure for art curricu
lums that has been developed by Elliot Eisner
of Stanford University, Brown said.
Its principal goal is to create a systematic,
sequential training in the four things that
people do with visual art: make it, appreciate it,
learn to understand it in relation to culture and
make judgments about it.
In contrast to this, Brown said, previous
elementary art education has involved nothing
more than “isolated production activities,
mostly involving holiday crafts.”
“Artis not taught,” Brown said. “Turkeys
at Thanksgiving and Dove-bottle angels at
Christmas arc nice, but they don’t teach chil
dren much about art, or anything else,” she
said.
Steps arc being taken to create a “rich,
substantive content area,” for art education,
she said, so that visual art will be a subject on
equal footing with math, science and other
primary subjects.
Textbooks are being created for elementary
schools that draw upon art history and include
visuals ranging from Picasso, to folk art of
other cultures, all the way to walk/don’t walk
signs, Brown said.
‘Serrano puts a plastic
crucifix in a jar, urinates
In the jar, takes a pic
ture of it, and calls it art.
But is it art?’
— Brown
The Prairie Visions consortium is one of six
groups across the country which is setting up
institutes to intensively train general class
room teachers, art specialists and school
administrators in the theory and application of
DBAE, Brown said. The other consortiums are
in Florida, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee and
Texas.
“It’s important that Nebraska is one of the
first six states,” Brown said. “The school
districts involved will have national attention
because they arc involved in pioneering
work.”
Last year was the pilot year for Prairie
Visions. Institutes were held over the summer,
and some of the programs are being imple
mented in schools this fall.
This past summer the consortium gathered
for two weeks of DB AE training and study. The
first week’s institute took place at Joslyn Art
Museum in Omaha, where 180 consortium
members studied visuals, solved visual prob
lems, looked at, talked about, debated and
made art, Brown said.
After that, the members divided into their
regional groups and gathered at the four re
gional hubs ~ Joslyn in Omaha; Sheldon
Memorial Art Gallery in Lincoln; The Mu
seum of Nebraska Art in Kearney; and West
Nebraska Arts Center in Scottsbluff -- for
another week’s activity and study.
Brown said she hopes that after five years,
when the grant runs out, the new art curriculum
will be instituted in the schools, and that the
public will be behind it.
In the meantime, the consortium is arrang
ing for the collection of the matching funds
from groups like The Nebraska Arts Council,
The Seacrest Family Trust, The Cooper Foun
dation and The Nebraska Art Association.
Public school districts also are helping out
financially. Brown said.
The consortium currently includes 22
school districts and eight colleges and univer
sities, Brown said. Twenty-nine new districts
have applied, she said, but she doesn’t know
how many the consortium will be able to add
right away.
‘‘Our goal is to be open to all who want it,”
she said.
‘‘It’s really great,” Brown said of the con
sortium. “Groups usually try to just carve out
their own little niche, but this is a wonderful
partnership between people and groups who
care about what happens to young people.”
