Plans To Remove Art History From The New Curriculum: Voices From Current Students

I am a current Year 13 student at an Auckland school taking the level 3 NCEA curriculum. I completed level 3 Visual Arts painting, and was among the 3% of students nationally who passed a scholarship in history and painting last year. In addition, I am currently studying level 3 printmaking and art history.

As a current art, history, and art history student, I would like to comment on Minister of Education Erica Stanford’s plan to axe art history from the new proposed NZ curriculum.

My interest in art history grew when I took the scholarship art history subject last year. The curriculum allowed me to learn about art, from lesser-known prehistoric art, such as the 23,000-year-old Venus figurine, to contemporary artists, such as Ai Weiwei.

Art history taught me to look beyond the conventions, beyond what is presented visually, to gain a contextual understanding. I also learned to see art in the mundane, everyday life.

2024 NZQA art history top scholar Mason Drylie commented that “The subject epitomises the study of the humanities, and its discontinuation will have detrimental effects on the way the new generation engages with the arts at a time where the area is most under threat. The requirement for the upkeep of the arts is dire, and this decision is counterproductive to the necessity to foster student engagement with the world of the humanities. ”

Last week, Stanford said that the decision was made due to the low number of people taking art history.

“In 2024, only 322 Year 12 students and 675 Year 13 students gained 14 or more credits, the benchmark for meaningful participation in a subject.”

However, scholarship art history shows the interest in art history amongst high school students is still quite high, with 900 students sitting the exam in 2024, according to NZQA.

Some schools allow students from as early as Year 10 to take the scholarship subjects, and some take the scholarship subject as a separate class even if they do not take art history as a regular subject.

The Ministry of Education said that art history will be integrated into other arts subjects, such as painting, photography, and design.

In my experience, in the painting and printmaking subject, students are required to independently research artist influences and use some of their techniques and conventions to inspire students’ own artworks. At most, I have received assistance from my teacher on suggestions for artists.

This is much different from art history, as we have dedicated sessions exploring the past and present of art, and how historical influences have changed the way people create art. Art history is much more than analysing the artwork itself; rather, it is history told through the lens of visual media.

A year 12 art history student from Auckland, Gia Perera, commented on the decision, “giving up a subject requiring critical thinking, pattern recognition, and analysis for AI generation devalues human creativity”

Year 10 student Zoey Zhao said she has always been interested in art history. She believes that the government decision “just does not make sense”, and that “removing art history is the initial step to wiping away the knowledge and understanding of the history of art”

“What’s the use of looking at an artwork, for example, by Monet, if the people don’t know about the background? Imagine reading a book abt physics, but the school didn’t teach fundamental physics, it doesn’t make sense”, Zhao added.

Art teachers have also commented that they feel unqualified to teach art history as part of teaching the art subject.

Students interested in studying art history may not be interested in the art subject itself.

Mason Drylie said that in his Auckland all-boys school, the situation is far worse for them as the visual arts subjects are not very promoted. He added that his school has two Year 13 art history classes, and only a very small minority of these students take a visual arts subject.

Axing art history removes this option for some students who want to study art history as a standalone subject in Year 12 and Year 13 as one of their five subject choices.

The ministry has also advised students with a strong passion for the subject to study it at university.

However, subject options in high school are likely to influence the career they pursue for the future, such as aspiring engineers who would study calculus in high school. For some, studying art history in the high school curriculum may lead them to discover their interest in the subject, leading them to continue pursuing the subject at a tertiary level.

Drylie added, “Art History was personally instrumental to my decision last year to pursue the humanities as a vocation and career. The fact that I do not have any plans to take art history courses at university, that I am studying instead English and Philosophy, and yet I still attribute my love for those subjects to my initial interest in Art History, should be a testament to its importance to the humanities universally. ”

Art history is a subject that allowed me, and many other students, to see the world through an entirely different lens. Removing this subject from the new curriculum will reduce the opportunities for future students to question, interpret, and understand the world around them.

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