2/good: I have been to a lot of galleries because my uncle is an artist... I go to them
more now because it’s kind of nice after this project and having different ideas.
Although Critical Minds aimed to introduce pupils to critical practices in the field,
some pupils were able to bypass this aim and identify with the ‘cool’ status that has
accrued to high-profile, contemporary art [18]. This provides a form of cultural
capital that is linked to an international, street-wise, global culture.
4/good: I like the scary art. There’s this artwork, David Shrigley: I think he’s just
funny. He is like a cartoonist. It’s just so crazy and so random. It’s just cool.
Most members of the adult team thought very highly of this pupil and yet her
interview suggests less reflection than others. She identifies here with ‘cool’ as an
attribute of both artists who are provocative and humorous and of herself (an
academic pupil who is also a leader and a ‘trendy’ role model).
Making sense of activities in relation to personal preferences
Some pupils found it difficult to identify with the curriculum and they had to work at
making sense of the project by relating it to practices beyond school. The pupil cited
below identified himself as an imaginative person, despite the opinion of some of the
adults involved in the project:
4/artist: He is confident playing football maybe; he is not-confident thinking about
art. So I don’t have any strong opinions about him except for he needed a lot of
pushing, he needed a lot of direction. He needed a lot of attention.
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