HERBERT READ'S CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS ART EDUCATION

 HERBERT READ'S CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS ART EDUCATION 

Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC (4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968)

He was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher.

He was best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education.

He was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. As well as being a prominent English anarchist.

Contributions towards Art Education:

Read was a champion of modern British artists

Read developed a strong interest in the subject of education and particularly in art education.

Read "became deeply interested in children’s drawings and paintings after having been invited to collect works for an exhibition of British art.

Key books and pamphlets resulted:

 Education through Art (Read, 1943); 

The Education of Free Men (Read, 1944); 

Culture and Education in a World Order (Read, 1948);

 The Grass Read, (1955);

and Redemption of the Robot (1966)".

Elaboration of socio-cultural dimension

 Read "elaborated a socio-cultural dimension of creative education, offering the notion of greater international understanding and cohesiveness rooted in principles of developing the fully balanced personality through art education.

Focus to develop child’s creativity

Read argued in Education through Art that "every child is said to be a potential neurotic capable of being saved from this prospect, if early, largely inborn, creative abilities were not repressed by conventional Education.

Motivate to recognize potent

Everyone is an artist of some kind whose special abilities, even if almost insignificant so everyone must be encouraged as contributing to an infinite richness of collective life.

Conducting study on child art from 1946 to his death

Read did not offer a curriculum but a theoretical defense of the genuine and true. His claims for genuineness and truth were based on the overwhelming evidence of characteristics revealed in his study of child art. From 1946 until his death in 1968.

President of Society for education

 He was president of the Society for Education in Art (SEA), the renamed ATG, in which capacity he had a platform for addressing UNESCO. On the basis of such representation Read, with others, succeeded in establishing the International Society for Education through Art (INSEA) as an executive arm of UNESCO in 1954."