Beyond the fine art ghetto: Why the visual arts are important in education

The importance of the visual arts lies not in the reasons why some of them ar privileged, but rather in the fact that as a whole they are such an ordinary part of life. They are to be found in all aspects of modern life, and apart from personal experience they structure much of what we know about the world. They take us to the core of social structures with all their contradictions and moral dilemmas. Yet most people have very little conscious knowledge about how to employ the visual arts in their best interests. No greater gifts can be offered by formal education than to facilitate critical minds that ask which images serve one's own interests and which need to be incorporated so that they do so, and also to encourage people with inquiring minds which ask, "What is not shown?" These arguments are advanced by reference to a range of disciplines, including psychology, evolutionary biology, postmodern cultural studies, media studies, semiotics, and the history of science and technology.