ABSTRACT
Looking at and making connections with the work of artists, craftspeople and designers encourages us to go beyond thinking about children as makers of their own art and help them develop as discriminating and critical viewers of the art, craft and design that they see around them. Many of the children we teach will not go on to be artists, craftspeople or designers or even use art, craft and design in their working lives. All of the children we teach will go on to live in an increasingly visual environment, making their own decisions about fashion, interior décor and developing a personal style. As citizens they will encounter art in the public spaces around them and see it in galleries and museums. As Charman et al. 2006, p.54 suggest ‘For those pupils who do not continue their art practice beyond school, the creative and critical skills of interpretation are equally necessary as a tool to negotiate our world of visual complexity and richness.’
