Eco-Literacy... in Art
Nature is prevalent in art. One only needs to walk through an art museum to see the how closely entwined the two are. It's not just in the visual arts either. The performing arts also find the inspiration in the natural world. Think of Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons'. The close partnership between art and the natural world shouldn't be any surprise given how closely we as humans have lived and worked in nature for most of humanity's existence. Nature is a part of our consciousness.
When you ask young kids to draw a picture they frequently include trees, flowers, bugs, or mountains. It makes sense to draw on that natural inclination to introduce them to E.L. Fine Arts education is in part about developing artistic skills such as drawing, sculpting, playing music, or acting. However, it is also about helping students to learn about their own observational skills, emotional well-being, attitudes, and creativity. Using art to explore environmental themes helps students to process what they've learned while helping them to develop an emotional connection to the world outside the classroom.
Ways to intertwine art and E.L. could include:
- Drawing/painting a landscape or still life
- Modeling the parts of a tree and then explaining how each part works together to support the tree's life
- Making musical instruments from items found outdoors
- Exploring where different arts materials come from and try to make some of your own dyes, paints, papers, etc.
- Exploring how art is used to explain scientific principles that can't be seen with the naked eye
- Creating a song, rap, or dance after spending time observing a river, tree, field, or other landscape
- Making puppets and then perform a skit with them about an environmental topic
- Trying doing nature photography
- Turning rocks into insects
- Starting a pictorial nature journal
Whatever you do, have fun! By creating good memories and encouraging exploration, we're helping kids to learn to love and enjoy the world around us. At the same time, helping them to discover their own passions, curiosities, and feelings. All these will help them be more engaged in learning and in caring for the environment.
For additional resources, try these:
- Environmental Education by Subject Fine Arts
- Five Reasons Arts Education is Essential to Sustainability
- Eco-Literacy: An Eco Web Greening Public Imagination
- Why Art Education?
- Americans for the Arts, Arts Education
- Art in the Outdoors
- Artists for Conservation
- The Art of a Watershed: Tenderness of Cranes
- Nature Art Education
- Artistic Approaches to Ecological Literacy: Developing Eco-Art Education in Elementary Classrooms
- Conserving the Canopy
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| Baroque Era Landscape Painting by Jan Hackert |
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