Visual literacy gets profile

I'm very pleased that Anthony Browne has been chosen as the new Childrens Laureate, replacing the tireless and wonderful Michael Rosen. I especially like the fact that Browne is emphasising visual literacy. The gallery education and visual arts education worlds have delivered so many campaigns and resources to promote visual literacy over the past 2 decades and more. But they are pushing against the tide of the National Literacy Strategy. Michael Rosen did run a stream of work in his laureateship called The Big Picture (for which I wrote the guidance materials for teachers). But, with Browne this will be his main focus. I hope that this will be a really effective Trojan Horse, to promote visual literacy through a programme that is all about literacy and books.

In this article, Browne describes how he visits one school where the teacher is proud that the children are two years above their reading age but they are extremely constrained when it comes to drawing, imagining and inventing. I know exactly what he is describing. He says that art in this school seems only to be tied to the rest of the curriculum, not Art for Arts Sake. Again, I know what he means. I can imagine that he is seeing imagery that is limited, decorative, formulaic and derivative. However, I don't think that this means Art & Design should be uncoupled from the rest of the curriculum. What matters is the quality of visual and creative activity. There should be more of it, more variety, more visual thinking, more looking and above all, more inventiveness and play. This should be infusing learning throughout the day, in every subject.