Told by the split teddy bears – Web debates on art education

Authors

• Tarja Pääjoki Jyväskylän yliopisto

Abstract

The article focuses on art education in the context of contemporary culture. The writer suggests that the therapeutic modes of culture have increasingly affected both the discourse and the practices of art education. The goal of creative self-expression is connected with media publicity and the media’s tendency to call for intimate confessions and testimonies of the participants. This is analysed through the case of a controversial Finnish art education work shop, where youngsters used stuffed animals as material for art, and the news and web discussion followed after. The aim is to elaborate the relationship of the art of young people with media publicity by asking what kind of interpretations were given for their creations and how these meanings were connected with the public exposure of their inner selves. As a result, the therapeutic discourse of art education and media publicity are criticized as sometimes narrowing the space of young people’s artistic agency.