1. G R E G O R I U S K U I J L E N B U R G
M Y T E A C H I N G P H I L O S O P H Y
Every individual has the potential to create. This is something I strongly believe in.
Students sometimes struggle with translating and visualizing the things they perceive around them into personal artwork:
“I am unable to do this” or “it does not look realistic”. Students deal with conventions, dogmas and stereotypes, limiting them
to engage in their creative process with an open approach towards art making. They tend to believe that from the start of any
creative process, they are unable to create ‘good’ artwork. I aim to convince them otherwise.
Classrooms should offer students a space to explore their personal expression, beyond the limitations that conventions
unconsciously may have imposed on them. It is a neutral place to explore the way images and art communicate and where
students should feel confident in who they are as creators. Creation is about what you have inside of you and freely
translating that through your own artistic expression, whatever that may be. My classroom offers a positive, empowering
environment that nurtures self­expression, allow individuals to make individual choices and fully engage in a process and
inquiry­based learning.
Throughout my professional career, having worked in different industries, I have used my didactic and visualizing skills to
pass on my enthusiasm, passion and knowledge. The classroom is no exception. My passion for art history and observing
contemporary phenomena serves as a starting point and reference in my classroom assignments. This is also reflected in
my own artwork as an artist, focusing on drawing, mixed media and photography. In the art lessons, the students use their
own background and environment to serve as a reference, drawing from associations and relevant experiences. I encourage
students to make individual choices, supporting and stimulating them to not only challenge and push themselves, but also to
comfortably express themselves in their own unique ways and find answers to relevant questions. I want to make students
aware of their own capabilities, nurturing individual qualities and interests, learning from other examples and from their
peers. My role as an educator is to facilitate an open dialogue both inside and outside the classroom and offer the means to
translate this dialogue into art making. Often, the direction projects take, is infused by my students, allowing them to pursue
their own ideas, based on individual choices that I support, nurture and build on through play, dialogue, experiment and
offering choice in materials and techniques.
I see the arts as part of a bigger whole. Connecting different art forms with our familiar environment, makes the arts
curriculum meaningful and purposeful. It could therefore easily compliment projects of other subjects within the school’s
curriculum, allowing students to develop an open attitude towards art and design. The arts curriculum teaches students to
envision, observe, discuss, reflect, plan, visualize and learn many other practical skills. Especially visualizing and developing
a personal language in mark making is my focus, as it is the foundation for any creative process. I encourage creative
problem solving, through out­of­the­box thinking and a frequent shifting in types of assignments and techniques.
I believe that the more students observe, make connections and experiment during assignments, the more they discover and
become self­conscious. This way, students develop skills that allow them to become successful in other aspects of school,
home life and ultimately, in future careers.
In the classroom good art can be created with limited and low­tech means, reflected in my own practice as an artist and
educator. I believe that technology in general ­ from pencil to digital media ­ is a tool to explore the content of the subject
matter. The pencil remains a primary tool, but because smart phones and other digital media are simply part of our daily life
and culture, they too should be a part of classroom assignments.
Finally, it is important for students to engage in having an inspiring and nurturing experience in the classroom, through art
making and learning about how to look at the arts. Building on previous experiences means that their artwork will only
continue to develop, as students develop a more in­depth understanding of the world around them. As John Dewey
mentioned in ​Art as Experience​:
One’s current experience is the consequence of the interaction between past experiences and the situation or circumstances
of the present. The use of past experiences are to generate new experiences that enables one to open oneself, therefore
being capable of growth in the future, to fully come to one’s full potential. (Dewey, 1980, p35­58)
Reference:
Dewey, J. (1980). Art as Experience. New York, NY: Putnam. > > >