A Teaching Perspective on Autonomy in Art Education

To teach art well clearly requires considerable understanding of autonomy in art. Some theorists with autonomy in mind have argued that art must be without constraint. I challenge aspects of this view because it is unrepresentative of the art world, is not necessarily good for art, is an inadequate concept of autonomy in general, and is very naïve about teaching responsibilities in art. The restorative notion I present is that art education requires the teaching contributions of art lessons that are appropriately aware of moral-ethical issues in order to be able to facilitate, in an autonomous manner, more of the enigmatic and the venerable that is art.