THE IBHABHATHANE PROJECT INITIATED BY THE FRANK JOUBERT ART AND DESIGN CENTRE

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1 1 THE IBHABHATHANE PROJECT INITIATED BY THE FRANK JOUBERT ART AND DESIGN CENTRE JILL JOUBERT AND GILL COWAN Frank Joubert Art and Design Centre, Cape Town/Western Cape Education Department The Frank Joubert Art and Design Centre (FJADC) in Newlands, Cape Town, was established in 1943 to teach art to children and returning war veterans. Over the years it has continued its extra mural programme of teaching visual art to children after school as well as teaching various visual art and design subjects up to matric level to learners drawn from over 50 high schools in the Western Cape. In addition, the permanent staff employed at the FJADC by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) used to work at some primary and high schools as itinerant specialist visual art teachers. By implication, under apartheid legislation, the centre catered for white learners only until segregated education was abolished and all schools came under a single provincial education department in This lead to major restructuring of both schools and the curriculum With nationalisation, schools had to lose teachers and the first to go were the "soft subject" specialists - art, music, the librarian, guidance and physical education teachers were retrenched, particularly from urban ex Model C schools where art education was fairly standard practice. Arts education during the apartheid era simply did not exist in ex DET and HOR schools. However, Arts and Culture (visual art, dance, drama, music, heritage and cultural studies) is one of the eight learning areas entrenched by Gill Cowan, Western Cape Education Departrnent, Cape Town

2 2 the new SA constitution in Curriculum It is therefore compulsory that schools offer this Learning Area but the legacy of the past prohibits implementation in previously disadvantaged schools because teachers are simply not trained in these highly specialised areas. Since 2000, the FJADC no longer sent itinerant teachers into ex-model C schools. Instead, we launched the IBHABHATHANE PROJECT aimed specifically at redress by working with both learners and teachers from previously disadvantaged schools. Supported by Gill Cowan, the subject advisor for art, and with our two project managers, Colin Stevens and Lillian Landu as fundraisers, the IBHABHATHANE PROJECT was piloted with two schools in It proved to be so successful that we are now working with the following schools: Qingqa-Mntwana Primary from Crossroads Masitahandane Primary from Khayelitsha Weltevreden and Wavecrest Primary from Mitchells Plain ID Mkhize and Sithembele Matiso High schools from Guguletu Cedar senior secondary from Mitchells Plain HOW THE IBHABATHANE PROJECT WORKS We bus 80 learners from the primary schools (one bus-load) into the Art Centre to do visual art/design projects from 09:00 to 13:00. This is the equivalent of the traditional 45 minutes a week for art, which with arriving, leaving, setting up and packing up, learners used to get about % hour of art if they were lucky. With the workshop method, learners are able to complete an entire project in one morning. Each child in grade 5, 6 and 7 will therefore have one art lesson per term. We also insist that the class teacher accompany the learners and do the art project alongside the children. In this way, the teacher experiences the lesson first hand through this practical model of INSET, and can transfer Gill Cowan, Western Cape Education Department, Cape Town 2

3 3 his/her understanding of the lesson back at his/her school. Most importantly, the FJADC specialist teacher needs the class teacher to assist with Xhosa translation where necessary. The Grade 8 and 9 learners come to the FJADC three times a term from 09:00 to 13:00. Their course is differently structured in that visual art is to be assessed as one of the learning areas at this level and their teachers are inadequately trained to do so. The teachers who are keen to be the Arts and Culture teacher in the school, accompanies the learners and learns the project alongside their class. They also learn to assess the work with the PJADC specialist teacher. These schools remain with us for two years, taking the programme through grade 8 and 9, so that the teachers can implement visual arts/design when they leave and set up in their own schools. LINKS TO OBE AND NEW WAYS OF -NCORPORATING DESIGN IN Tilt PRIMARY SCHOOL ART ROOM The FJADe teachers work on a broad theme for each term. example, could be drawing or colour or 3-D construction. This, for The teachers from the schools give us their term "programme organiser" or theme and we use this as the content of the lesson. Examples of programme organisers are wild animals, families, health, autumn, transport etc. In this way, the visual arts lesson becomes an integral part of the interdisciplinary programme of the school. At the end of the lesson, the completed project is displayed in the classroom or foyer of the school. Gill Cowan, Western Cape Education Department, Cape Town 3

4 4 Every lesson begins with observational drawing, where possible taken from life. If not, learners work from books, photographs and at times from the work of artists as source material. We believe drawing to be the basis of any form of art or design processes, particularly in the planning stages of any project. OBE includes entrepreneurial skills and we also work with this in our projects. Traditionally, fine art is taught to children and the pictures displayed preciously on the wall. We are trying to combine fine art skills with design and simple product development. For example, a radiating pattern project becomes a fridge magnet, or a wire construction can become an insect brooch or mobile. A name design becomes incorporated into a concertina book and a toilet roll is transformed into a desktop pencil holder. We also work extensively with waste materials bearing in mind that schools are under-resourced. This leads directly to environmental awareness. We do not however deny the use of quality art materials and learners are exposed to pastels, inks, paint and clay - all traditional equipment used in a specialised art room. TEACHER TRAINING We believe INSET to be fundamental to the long-term success of our project. Unless teachers are skilled, visual arts and design will not be adequately taught in our schools. A teacher can only be skilled in these areas by doing and by owning the pride and satisfaction of a self-made product. Teachers need to discover their own creativity and this cannot happen in a short OBE workshop given by a subject advisor to tired teachers at the end of a school day. Gill Cowan, Western Cape Education Department, Cape Town 4

5 5 The teachers who attend classes with their learners are obliged to attend five extra visual art/design classes per term on Monday afternoons after schools. The projects their learners do in the classroom are expanded upon and the teachers receive further practical skilling, discuss the theoretical basis of art education, receive notes and talk amongst each other. We have already seen the positive artistic and personal growth and development happen amongst some of the teachers who are starting to successfully implement visual art in their classrooms. The main drawback however, is the lack of resources for this learning area due to the reluctance of principals to spend money on equipment and materials, The continued success of the IBHABHATHANE PROJECT is dependant upon funding from business and other supporters. It is also important that the WCED recognises the potential of what we are doing as a working model that can be used across the whole of the Western Cape. Gill Cowan, Western Cape Education Departrnent; Cape Town 5

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