Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Summer 2025 - EDUC 849 G001

Artists, Society and Arts Education (5)

Class Number: 2858

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    May 12 – Aug 8, 2025: Tue, 4:30–9:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

A major survey of the educational theories and practices of musicians and artists generally from medieval times to the present. The special focus will be on modern responses of musicians and artists to modern demands for mass arts education. Material will be drawn from Europe, North America, Asia, and other parts of the world where mass arts education provision occurs.

COURSE DETAILS:

  • What are – and what have been - the social contexts in which the arts, and artists (hereafter, ‘art/ists’) live or die, thrive or falter, are enabled and encouraged, or denigrated and suppressed?
  • What are the implications for how collective (ie social) and individual (ie personal) lives are lived in these various contexts?
  • What is the nature of the work of the artist, the role of the artist, and the disposition of the artist in their social contexts?
  • What is the life of the artist like, and how does it jibe, or not, with wider social definitions of being?
  • And, importantly, what is the place of education, especially arts education, in all this?

Possible Themes/Topics

Art/ists from an evolutionary, historical, and cross-cultural perspective; on the relationship between art, aesthetics, society and culture; exploring the life, work, identity, role, and psyche of the artist in society; the social and psychological importance of the arts; on creatogenic and creatopathic ecologies (societies and cultural ecologies that value and enable art/ists vs. societies and cultural ecologies that are antagonistic toward art/ists); implications for learning, teaching, and creating

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

This course aims to provide a space for us to examine these, and other questions and themes, as a means to develop our own informed and layered perspectives on the relationship between art/ists and society, with an eye toward considering how this layered perspective might contribute to the ongoing human conversation about the arts, the practices of arts education, of education in general, and of your own educational, creative, and life practices. A final significant aim of the course is to help you argue for and advocate for a particular vision and position regarding the arts that you feel is worth advocating for.

Grading

  • Leading a Class Discussion prompted by a Quote or Statement about Art/ists and Society: 2 to 3 discussions to be scheduled each night of our course 20%
  • “Art/ist as…” small group presentation on a simile/metaphor of the role of the artist in society (to be discussed in more detail): approx. 2-3 presentations scheduled each night of our class 20%
  • Letter to a Young Artist: Taking inspiration from the famous series of letters between poet Rainer Maria Rilke and a young soldier-in-training, Franz Xaver Kappus from 1902 to 1908, (see Letters to a Young Poet) compose your own letter to a young artist, articulating anything you feel is important to pass on to an emerging or inquiring artist (of any kind). DUE anytime between our last class (July TBD), and August 8 40%
  • Final Sharing, ‘Poster’ Session, and Roundtable Discussion: Create a modest ‘art/ifact’ to share and present on our last evening (TBD), something that represents, in a cogent way your sense of why the arts and artists matter in society, and/or what our role as arts educators might be 20%

NOTES:

More information will be provided, and questions addressed, on our first day.

Completion of all assignments, attendance, participation, engagement in all that we will undertake.

Materials

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Graduate Studies Notes:

Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.