Freedom of expression and
contemporary visual arts education

Sydney College of the Arts educates students to become contemporary artists, and contemporary art can be confronting on grounds of sex, religion, gender, and race. In 2004, during a unit of study evaluation by eighty Foundation students, two confessed to feelings of disgust at the content of images shown in lectures.

This paper examines the ethical responsibilities of visual arts educators to the whole learning community, and how teaching and learning must negotiate the conflicting interests of equal opportunity in education, the rise of moral conservatism, and the long-standing ethical assumption within the discipline of visual arts about the right to freedom of expression. It considers whether there is sufficient bridging between High School where teachers are bound by legislation such as 'Child Protection', and Art School where the autonomy of the environment allows students and teachers to experience relative freedom. The paper compares the view that feeling abject and morally affronted by art makes little sense when the artwork does not take a pre-existing reality as its referent, with the view that every artwork has a moral and ethical responsibility to the social world of which it is part.