Tolochko I.M.

Regional Training Center of Retraining of Employees of Cultural and Educational Establishments

Department of Culture and Tourism of Kharkiv Regional State Administration

Olympiad as an incentive to study of the history of fine arts

National doctrine of education is supposed to create conditions for the child for the maximum self-determination and self-expression. It is exactly promoted with art education and its most important part – the objects of world art history, art history of Ukraine, which form the basic art value orientation of the student, contribute to the development of his cognitive and analytical thinking, bringing organic inclination to study the achievements of previous cultures, expanding worldview.

History of fine arts teaching at the art schools and the art departments of schools of aesthetical education is aimed at overall harmonious development of student’s personality, formation of his worldview, moral and aesthetic ideal, and education of culture feelings.

Accumulated in Regional Training Center of Retraining of Employees of Cultural and Educational Establishments (hereinafter Center) experience in carrying out of annual regional Olympiads in history of fine art enables to admit that, to some extent, Olympiads namely enhance intellectual level of students, contribute to the formation of the national art vision in the context of the worldwide.

The annual Olympiad has already held for 14 years with the assistance and support of Department of Culture and Tourism of Kharkiv Regional State Administration. The event gathers students aged 13 to 15 years old who have an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of the history of fine art, ability to navigate in the art of different eras and genres, in combination and interrelation of arts, in terms of the theory of style and in the ability to analyze and synthesize the acquired knowledge. Organizers steer efforts on the development of the event, its filling with new content and make changes to the format of its arrangement as needed.

Just during the Olympiad, great attention is paid to the student’s attitude to the provided theme, the ability to analyze the given information, stimulation of his interest in the further independent search for additional material.

In all the years of the event, the primary objective of regional Olympiads remains:

-     encouraging students of schools of aesthetic education to study fine art as a science;

-     development of participants’ abilities to analysis of art works, styles, genres;

-     contribution to the revitalization of the creative work of teachers.

The first Olympiads were planned and conducted by the Center at the end of the training course of “Initial course of the history of fine art” (that is a necessary part of the Typical curricula which provides study in art schools and art departments of schools of aesthetic education of the system of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Ukraine) with the aim to control the level of students’ knowledge. Subsequently, methodical council decided to transform the contest into more complex and creative methodological event which provides more in-depth knowledge of students and expanding of their worldview.

The purpose of the Olympiad: encouraging students of schools of aesthetic education for in-depth study of the history of fine art, study of the formation and development of the worldwide fine art and art school of his native land, in-depth study of the creative heritage of the best representatives of fine art of the world and Ukraine.

The aim of the Olympiad:

-     disclosure of creative individuality of students;

-     expansion of students’ knowledge in the history of fine art;

-     activation of the creative work of teachers of art schools and art departments of schools of aesthetic education in teaching of history of fine art.

The Olympiad tasks:

-     deepening knowledge of the creative heritage of artists on the theme of the Olympiad;

-     summarizing the experience of teachers;

-     improving professional teaching standards;

-     identifying talented and professionally promising students.

In recent years, in an effort to help event participants to prepare for the Olympiad the best way, Center, by joint efforts with the city specialized musical-theater library named after K.Stanyslavskyy, organizes and conducts seminars for teachers on a given topic, for students there are adapted lectures with multimedia accompaniment. On the basis of the Kharkov Art Museum lectures for teachers by leading institution experts are held in the exhibition, in order to get more in-depth knowledge, read the archives, the research of Museum staff. The Center constantly invites for cooperation the leading art historians – teachers of fine art history of Kharkiv State University of Arts and Design, Kharkiv Art College. This greatly simplifies the process of preparing for the Olympiad and allows participants to deepen their knowledge on the topic and expand the level of the worldview.

Experience the Olympiad carrying out showed that in their area they have not only informative and teaching, but also educational value. For example, the competition which is both relevant to ethnopedagogy – the Olympiad of 2013-2014 academic year on the topic “Creativity of I.Yu. Repin in the context of Ukrainian Art”, dedicated to the 170th anniversary of the birth of the artist with the world name, a native of Kharkiv. It confirmed the informal interest of young artists to the life and work of the master. Significantly, the children's Olympiad opened a large range of activities planned on Slobozhanshchyna in honour of the anniversary of our famous countryman. More than 60 students took part in the creative competition. According to the jury, the general level of knowledge of those Olympiad participants was significantly higher than the previous. The relation of participants to the event differed with special interest, activity and demonstrated overall quality level of the participants. When summarizing the results, the winners were asked to choose the topic of the next Olympiad (2014-2015 academic year).

After the discussion, students came to the conclusion that this should be a topic connected with the work of members of the Kharkiv art school, citing a need to the further explore the range of creative artists who worked in their native Slobozhanschyna. Thus, the choice of subject for the next creative competition was an attempt of its future participants.

Over the years of the event existing forms of conducting, themes and demands of competition changed, and eventually organizers concluded feasibility of the contest in the form of testing. The Center worked specific requirements for each form of conducting. Thus, the written tests consist of two or three blocks:

Block I – choice of the correct answer from the three proposed;

Block II – the answer to the question;

Block III – work with illustrations (or maybe not);

Video Quiz.

An important part in organizing and conducting the regional Olympiads are evaluation criteria. With the accumulated experience they are as follows: to perform the written test items 90 minutes are given (2 academic hours), disaggregated by blocks:

Block I – 30 minutes, with the score 1 point for each correct answer;

Block II – 30 minutes, with the score 1 point for each correct answer;

Block III – 30 minutes, with a score line according to the objectives of work with illustration.

As for a video quiz, it is given 30 minutes, with an estimate of 1 to 3 points for correct answers for each illustration (author, title, genre). Instead of video quiz there can be a quiz of any content using visual music, poetry and other materials.

Experience shows that within the competition in order to enhance the activity of students, creative task can be used as a form of self-expression, which is evaluated separately. For example:

-     drawing up a literary essay on one of the suggested themes;

-     fancy-work on the theme of the picture, that is a fantasy about the events that took place before the scene depicted in the painting (picture is provided directly at the Olympiad);

-     any other decision of creative task.

Topics of Olympiads over the years of its implementation:

2001-2002 academic year – competition for the best knowledge of the history of fine art within master class by teachers Marhaychuk and Teslenko;

2002-2003 academic year – Olympiad concerning entry without examination to the Kharkiv Art College;

2003-2004 academic year – “Iconography: history, personality, manner”;

2004-2005 academic year – “Impressionism and post-impressionism”;

2005-2006 academic year – “Gothic architecture of France”;

2006-2007 academic year – “Ukrainian Baroque”;

2007-2008 academic year – “Style in art”;

2008-2009 academic year – “European culture from the XII to the early XX century”;

2009-2010 academic year – “Wanderers. Creativity of I.Yu. Repin” to the 165th anniversary of the birth of I.Yu. Repin;

2010-2011 academic year – “Miriskusnyky. Adjacent art types through the prism of miriskusnyky’s creativity”;

2011-2012 academic year – “Impressionism as one of the significant directions of art from the late XIX to early XX century”;

2012-2013 academic year – “Ukrainian school of painting of the late XIX early XX centuries” (Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa schools of painting);

2013-2014 academic year – “Creativity of I.Yu. Repin in the context of Ukrainian art” to the 170th anniversary of the birth;

2014-2015 academic year – “Kharkiv school of fine art of XIX, the first half of XX century”.

To evaluate the results of the Olympiad tasks, to analyze quality of preparation, to form rating of participants, to determine the winners and awardees, the jury is created by leading experts on Kharkiv State Academy of Arts and Design, Kharkiv Art College, Kharkiv Art Museum, the city specialized musical-theater library named after K.Stanyslavskyy. Subsequently, it was decided to apply the rating system of evaluation when summarizing: based on the number of points obtained thegeneral list of participants is formed (the better and deeper knowledge – the higher place on the list).

According to the jury, the overall level of students’ knowledge and results of video quiz improve every year.

The experience of the competition shows that the disadvantages may include:

-     not enough quality training of participants of Olympiad to the most difficult block of tasks where the correct answer to the question should be given;

-     formation of sentences when answering the question tests leaves much to be desired.

In order to the further improvement of organization and conducting the following Olympiads, Center monitors on issues of improvement of preparation and holding quality, methodological support, test items developing for the same themes; all feedbacks and suggestions on the quality of the event are carefully analyzed.

Experience in organizing and conducting of regional Olympiads on history of fine art shows their contribution to the full and harmonious development of students’ personality and provides them with an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, enhance intellectual baggage.

Conclusion: on the results of the Methodological Council of regional section of fine art, the Olympiad exactly stimulates interest of students to study the theory of art, broadens their outlook, promotes interdisciplinary connections and expands the knowledge of young artists in music, dance, theater, cinema, literature, provides an opportunity to demonstrate orientation skills in art of different eras and genres, analyze and synthesize new knowledge.

References:

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