An Art Education

Network: A Brazilian
Experience
DORA MARIA DUTRA BAY
Abstract
Art in School Network links 18 universities and other cultural institutions in all Brazil
to promote visual literacy and analytical skills among primary and secondary school
students. Since 1989 it has operated through partnerships with academic and cultural
institutions in developing teacher training programmes and distributing art
documentaries on videotape. Over 7 years it has reached 15 million students in
Brazil. Dr Ana Mae Barbosa is the consultant for the network. In Catarina State, the
network links 5 universities and is based on studies of the life and work of local
artists as a prelude to the Triangular Proposal (criticism, history and art production).

This paper presents the Arts in School Network
of Brazil, especially in Santa Catarina State. To
understand the meaning and range of the Arts
in School Network as an instrument of change
to a post-modern approach in art teaching,
some initial considerations are helpful.
The teaching of art was officially introduced
in Brazil at the beginning of the nineteenth-cen-
tury, when Don Joao the Sixth, king of Portugal,
escaping from the Napoleon Wars, brought his
court to Brazil. Several official institutions were
then created by the Emperor, among them the
Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. To run the
Academy a special team of vanguard artists with
a strong neo-classical style was contracted in
France, known as the French Artistic Mission.
Before this the teaching of arts in Brazil hap-
pened in an informal manner, through the work
of Jesuit priests and Portuguese artisans resident
in the colony. At the time of arrival of the
French Artistic Mission the dominant style was
a locally developed baroque style, known as
Brazilian Baroque. Imported from Portugal, re-
interpreted by mestizos and African slaves, Bra-
zilian Baroque constituted the first national cul-
tural sign [Barbosa, 1995]. The introduction of
neo-classicism was therefore a rupture with the
past, a radical change from the artistic paradigm
imposed by the colonial lords.
With the advent of modernism in the twenti-
eth century, the European educational model
was imported again and a new rupture
occurred. This time Brazil experimented with
an educational renovation based on the ideas
of the Progressive School of Chicago (child
centred). During several decades, art teaching
remained anchored to the ideas of Read,
Dewey, Lowenfeld and on the postulates of the
Progressive School, although re-interpreted and
mis-interpreted in a simplistic version com-
pletely removed from the original ideas. As a
consequence, arts in Brazilian schools turned
into a free-expression, laissez-faire activity dis-
connected from other artistic aspects and from
educational action itself.
In the eighties, Dr. Ana Mae Barbosa, in a
vision influenced by a post-colonialist move-
ment, which de-constructs and re-organises
European and North American cultural influ-
ences, started teaching arts through a Triangular
Approach. This approach was developed and
systematised in the Contemporary Art Museum
of Sao Paulo University and works through the
integration of three learning elements: art pro-

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218 DORA MARIA DUTRA BAY An Art Education Network: A Brazilian Experience
duction, art appreciation (aesthetics and
criticism) and historical contextualisation.
Behind this explicit triangulation, lies another
one based on studies of Aire Libre Schools in
Mexico, Critical Studies in Britain and Discipline
Based Art Education in North America.
After testing and approval at the Contempor-
ary Art Museum, the Triangular Approach
served as the theoretical and methodological
basis for the Arts in School Project. The main
adaptation was the substitution of Museum vis-
its by videotapes, as a way of permitting wide-
spread use of the method by small cities in the
hinterland of a country of such vast continental
dimensions as Brazil.
The Triangular Proposal in Art Education,
which could be considered overly simplified
when measured against the parameters of the
central nations, corresponds to the reality of our
teacher, and to the need we have of preparing
the students for the world in which we live, and
responds to the fundamental value sought in
our education, that of reading, of literacy. [Bar-
bosa, 1995]
The Arts in School Project and the
Arts in School Network
The Arts in School Project has its origins in a
1989 partnership between the private Iochpe
Foundation, the Federal University of Rio
Grande do Sul State and the Porto Alegre
Municipality, when an application of the Tri-
angular Approach using video tapes as a sup-
port was developed. After the initial success of
the experiment, the projects scope was
enlarged in range and objectives, soon includ-
ing other universities and creating the nucleus
of the Arts in School Network.
Nowadays, the Arts in School Network is
composed of 30 disseminator poles and it is
under constant growth and dynamisation, spec-
ially because its development forced adap-
tations to the regional characteristics and pro-
files of the regional disseminator poles, from
the south to the north of Brazil. Based on con-
temporary research and arts teaching method-
ologies adapted to third-world conditions, the
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Arts in School Network led to the formation of
creative, critical and perceptive young students.
It aims to identify concrete problems, work in
co-operation based on practical and theoretical
references, to provide quality didactic materials
and advance the improvement of arts teaching
at school and university. [Pillar, 1992]
The Arts in School Project works through two
basic programmes:
A Continuous Education Programme which
promotes in-service teacher training,
producing courses, seminars, lectures,
study groups, workshops, consultancy,
research and the creation of didactic
material.
A Video-Library Programme which lends
specialised art videotapes to the public. It
also offers didactic help to teachers, like
data banks for still images and text, and
suggestions for video utilisation in
classrooms.
The Arts in School Network has published two
books and edits a quarterly newsletter and a
semestral journal. Besides that, it encourages its
members to participate in national and inter-
national events related to its field, having a
training agreement with the USA Getty Centre
for Arts and Education. The actions of the poles
are continuously evaluated, both qualitatively
and quantitatively, giving feedback and reorien-
tation to the Network as a whole. The results
of the 1996 evaluation showed that the Arts in
School Network had reached the proportions of
a chain-reaction movement, involving around
five million students and thirty thousand teach-
ers in eight different Brazilian States.
The Arts in School Pole of Santa
Catarina State
The dissemination of the Arts in School Project
in Santa Catarina State is a unique model in the
Network. Santa Catarina State University
(UDESC) was the first disseminator pole outside
the Projects original State (Rio Grande do Sul),
and the first university to begin the multipli-
cation of the Project at state level, generating a
DORA MARIA DUTRA BAY An Art Education Network: A Brazilian Experience
dissemination model that was later applied at
National level.
UDESC is a State University, public and free-
of-charge, created through a vocational campus
approach and idealised for the development of
Santa Catarina State. As a consequence, all work
in UDESC is normally seen throughout a global
view of the State as a whole, and the emergence
of the Network idea was natural. The develop-
ment of the regional pole of Santa Catarina State
is also related to three specific characteristics.
Historical characteristics
Santa Catarina State, like most of southern Bra-
zil, was formed by diverse European migration
currents, including Azoreans, Germans, Italians,
Austrians and Polish among others. Each region
of the State has different ethnic characteristics,
giving rise to a rich cultural plurality.
Socio-economic characteristics
Santa Catarina State occupies 1.3 percent of Bra-
zilian territory, has around four million inhabi-
tants, is one of the major food producers of the
country, and has the fourth largest industrial
sector of Brazil. Its per-capita income is high
for Brazilian standards and it is well balanced
throughout the State. The State has no strong
urban capital, but a set of medium-size regional
city poles. There is also a balance between
urban and rural areas, formed mostly by
medium and small-size properties.
University sector characteristics
The University sector reflects the diversity and
equilibrium of Santa Catarina State. There are
no big universities, but instead there is one Fed-
eral University at the capital city, a State Univer-
sity with 4 campuses and 18 private University
Foundations united under a voluntary associ-
ation.
In this scenario, and embedded in the per-
ception of a unified and diverse State, the dis-
semination of the Arts in School Project could
not happen in any other way than through a
state network. At first UDESC made contacts
with all universities that had art teacher prep-
aration courses, and established co-operation
agreements. UDESC then joined efforts with
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219
four other universities, constituting with three
of them the first disseminator poles at micro-
regional level, Joinville Regional University,
UNIVILLE; Blumenau Regional University Foun-
dation, FURB; Criciuma Educational Foun-
dation, FUCRI, and with the fourth, the Experi-
mental School of Santa Catarina Federal
University (AC/UFSC) the main research labora-
tory. This common work, although rewarding
and efficient, was not easy at the beginning due
to geographical distance, bureaucracy, and the
need to centralise the video-library at the
UDESC Arts Centre in the capital city.
Conclusion
Today it is possible to say that the Arts in School
Project is firmly established in Santa Catarina
State, providing the school community with full
access to art and culture. It had begun with a
partnership with the universities which pre-
pared arts teachers. After that, a State Network
had been put in place, interacting in the cultural
and educational domains of each micro-region,
but with due respect for the characteristics and
priorities of the diverse institutions involved.
Through integrated actions with other cultural
and educational institutions, methodology and
conceptual schema the three educational levels
are now being reached, and through interactive
ways informal education as well.
During the last five years of common work,
the Pole has achieved some victories, gaining
acceptance either at the internal level of the uni-
versities or at the external level of other edu-
cational institutions, like municipal education
boards, art museums, cultural centres, and
workers training centres. At the university level,
the majority of support, besides time allocation,
is related to grants for study trips and training
courses for teachers, grants for students train-
ing and space in official publications. Now-
adays, the State Network is composed of thirty
university teachers, and their work is viewed as
extra-class activities under the label of Research
and Extension.
The State Network has also the support of the
Scientific Initiation Grants Programme from the
National Research Council (CNPq), and the Aca-
220 DORA MARIA DUTRA BAY
demic Grants Programmes and Research Funds
from the universities. During the 1997 academic
year, new partnerships are under construction,
namely with the State Secretary for Science and
Technology (SEDUMA) and the National Co-
ordination for Improvement of University Per-
sonnel (CAPES), both aimed at the financing of
post-graduate courses.
The evaluation of the Pole, carried out in
1996 shows the number of 300,000 students and
2000 teachers reached in Santa Catarina State
References
Alves, Jucelia and Alii, Org. O Ensino da Arte em
Foco. Ed. UFSC, Florianopolis, 1995
Barbosa, Ana Mae. A Imagem no Ensino da Arte. Ed
Perspectiva, Fundacao Iochpe, Sao Paulo, 1991
Bay, Dora M. D. Projeto Arte na Escola em Santa Cat-
arina: um Caso Peculiar, in Boletim Arte na
Escola, no. 9, Caxias do Sul, 1994
NSEAD, 1999
An Art Education Network: A Brazilian Experience
alone. The results of the internal organisation
of Santa Catarina State Regional Pole can be
seen in the enlargement of work boundaries, by
a larger acceptance of the Arts in School prin-
ciples by municipal and state educational insti-
tutions, and by the acknowledgement of its
work in the universities, turning the Project into
a permanent activity.
Dora Maria Dutra Bay
Pillar, Analice and Vieira, Denise. O Video e a Meto-
dologia Triangular no Ensino da Arte. Ed.
UFRGS/F. Iochpe, Porto Alegre, 1991
Rede Arte na Escola. Textos Nao Publicados. 1996