Spain

=**Spain**=
 * By Caitlin Carden**

=Introduction= Spain became a country during the 15th century after the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs and the end of the reconquest (Reconquista) of the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. Spain is a sovereign state located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula and has an area of 505,992 square kilometers, making it the fourth largest country after Russia, Ukraine, and France. Additionally, Spain is a democracy in the form of a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a well-developed country and when comparing national GDP it ranks twelfth in the largest economies, which allows Spain to have a high standard of living. Spanish, the second most spoken first language, is the most common language spoken in Spain and Madrid is its capital.

The arts and education is very reflective of the Spanish culture. The Spanish culture is really famous for Flamenco music and dance, bullfights, fantasistic beaches, the sun but also much much more. "Spain has an extraordinary artistic heritage". There are many famous artist from Spain including Pablo Picasso, Juan Miro, Salvador Dali, and Diego Velazquez, just to name a few. Aside from the artistic heritage, acrchitecture is really imporant to Spain as well, including, "Gaudi's intricate fabulist sculptures in Barcelona". Additionally, the arts in schools in Spain is very important and apparent at every grade level. There are different requirements that include the arts at every grade level that I'll go into detail more under the school arts programs section.

=Accomplished Artist=

Pablo Picasso


Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Malaga Spain. He became one of the greatest and most influential artist of the 20th century and along with Georges Braque created Cubism. Cubist paintings had objects that were broken apart and reassembled in an abstracted form, highlighting their compostie geometric shapes and depicting the object from many viewpoints to create collage-like affects. Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, and considered very radical in his work. He displayed a talent for art a very young age starting with his drawing skills. Picasso's first teacher was his father and by the time he was 13 his paintings were already better than his father's. At this point in his life, he lost all desire to do schoolwork and class time was usually spent doodling in his notebook. In 1895, when young Picasso was fourteen, him and his family moved to Barcelona where he applied to the city's prestigious School of Fine Arts. His application and work was so exceptional he was admitted even though he was very young. Even after this he would skip class to wonder around the city sketching and observing the city scene. A couple years later when Picasso was 16 he moved to Madrid, to attend the Royal Academy of San Fernando, but again became frustrated with the schools singular focus on classical techniques and subjects. Here he was skipping class as well to paint again what he was seeing, gypsies, beggars, and prostitutes. In 1899, Picasso moved back to Barcelona where he fell in love with the artists and intellectuals. From this he made a break with the classical methods that he had been trained in and began his lifelong process of experimenting and innovating. Later he moved from Spain to Paris, the cultural center of European art and opened his own studio. At this time Picasso was depressed from the loss of a friend but soon this ended and he was falling in love. His emotions and feelings to these sorts of life events were being expressed through his artwork. World War I was the next big event in his life that was shown in his work, this was considered his Classical Period. Following this was the Spanish Civil War than World War II and its aftermath when Picasso became more overtly political. "Pablo Picasso stands alone as the most celebrated and influential painter of the twentieth century. His technical mastery, visionary creativity and profound empathy distinguish him as a revolutionary artist. Picasso was also endlessly reinventing himself, switching between styles so radically different that his life's work seems the product of five or six great artists rather than just one."

Pablo Picasso has many famous works including Mona Lisa, Three Musicians, Blue Nude, The Old Guitarist, Guernica, Seated Woman, and many different self portraits, just to name a few. Here is a video of Picasso's top 20 paintings.

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=Arts Organization=

Art Centre Association
I had a very difficult time coming across art organization in Spain, however one thing I did find was the Art Centre Association located in Javea, Spain. This was created to encourage both non-artist and experienced artist alike. They offer a variety of different arts both traditional and contemporary and includes using pastels, watercolors, mixed media, oil paints, drawing, portraiture, creative textiles, and the restoration of porcelain. Aside from this, this organization offers many exhibitions each year as well as an occasional newsletter. They also offer studio and meetings rooms for any group, school or club that wants to meet on a regular basis or just wants to make a mess. This Art Center is located in a remote area and provides artist and non-artist with the opportunity to create whenever. This is a non-profit organization but sometimes has fees involved when wanted to use the equipment, etc.



=School Arts Program= Arts education in Spain is a complex field with pretty strict guidelines for each grade level. Students come into contact with arts education through areas of the curriculum or through projects that involve different levels of government at all required grade levels. During the primary education level years, arts education covers mainly two areas: visual arts and music, but also incorporates dance and theatre. The contents of this are divided into four areas: Visual Arts Observation, Expression and Artistic Creation, Listening, and Intrepretation and Musical Creation. During, secondary education, the subjects 'Visual Arts Education' and 'Music' are required in the first three grades (105 hours per each) and then are optional in the 4th grade. The areas that these grades cover include Observation, Exploration and Discovery, Audiovisual and Multimedia Environment, Expression and Creation, Reading and Appreciation of Artistic References. At the upper secondary level, there is a course in arts and humanities, which is a prerequisite for higher education courses and arts education. In this secondary school course, the arts are divided into two branches: Fine Arts, Design and Image and Performing Arts, Music and Dance. Additionally, Vocational education prepares students to work in a professional field, such as arts and crafts, graphic arts or glass and ceramics. Such courses tend to be organized into intermediate and higher training cycles. This is just an overview of art apparent throughout different grade levels but there is more to it than just this. With respect to arts education (special scheme), which comes between secondary school and university level training, varies in terms of qualifications, the organization, the type of system and the educational centres that teach the courses. Such courses tend to be organized into intermediate and higher training cycles. Training cycles include areas such as dramatic arts, visual arts and design, dance, music, and the conservation and restoration of cultural goods.

"According to the //Cultural Statistics Yearbook 2010//, published by the Ministry of Culture, in the academic year 2009-2010, a total of 362 041 students were enrolled in arts education (special scheme). This figure, which represents an increase of 5.8% over the previous year, is in line with the rise in recent years. By sector, 83.3% of students were enrolled in music, 9% in dance, 7.1% in plastic arts and design, and the remaining 0.6% in drama. With respect to the general scheme, in the academic year 2008-2009, a total of 23 543 students were enrolled in the arts in upper secondary education and 19 488 were involved in the cultural field of vocational training. These figures account for approximately 4% of upper secondary education and vocational training."

Through all of this information it is apparent that the arts in education aren't only offered in grade school in Spain but required. Additionally there are many opportunities for students to be involved in arts in education past their grade school years.

=Conclusion= Spain's arts education is very different from art being incorporated into my schooling experience. In Spain they have exact requirements for each grade level and each grade level requires different aspects of art. For me the only art I ever remember being required was art class, or a certain amount of arts class required for high school. Also my experience and Spain's differ because Dance and Theatre were never required in my education, but Theatre was offered. I think that because Spain is very famous for their art and the arts reflects their culture that is why it is so important in education and required at almost every grade level. I was surprised to learn all of their art requirements and how specific they are. I think its great that every student, in every grade gets to learn about or be involved with some sort of art whether it be music, theatre, dance or painting, etc. Additionally it was very interesting to see how much of Spain's culture revolved around art and different artists. This was very apparent when I recently visited Barcelona, I got to experience much of the art and architecture that makes the city so famous.

=Sources= []

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http://www.javea-online.com/homepages/artcentre/

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