New Exhibit: Carol Cade Children's Art: Part Two

Introduction

The Carol Cade Children’s Art Collection comprises 532 mostly drawings and paintings, with some mixed media, created by young artists whose work was collected over decades by Carol Beth Cade, an avid teacher and painter from the South. Children of varying ages made them in family or neighborhood groups. College students asked them to draw pictures of themselves, something they enjoyed, or something they would like to do when they are older.

Cade’s collection presents a charming, comprehensive view of the artistic development of children, one that illustrates key stages of their artistic growth, from Scribbling and Pre-Schematic, to Schematic and Early Realism, through to Pseudo Naturalistic and Decision.  In coordination with the Program in Art and Art Education, it was gifted to the Milbank Memorial Library (now Gottesman Libraries) of Teachers College, Columbia University in the early 1990s, building upon children’s art collections as a unique resource in the study and teaching of art. 

Portions of the Carol Cade Children’s Art Collection were first shown at Pace University in 1991. Summaries of the artistic stages are drawn from Cade’s own narrative descriptions which include recommended classroom art materials for each stage of development. Cade’s curation lends interesting historical insight into her doctoral research at Teachers College and how the program in Art and Art Education would evolve innovatively in the following decades, with an examination of the role of the senses, emotions, and intellect in artistic development, and of the layered integrations they form over time, and with critical starting points for research.

This exhibit will be shown in three parts throughout the Fall of 2025.

On Carol Cade

Daughter to Reverend Charles David Cade and his wife Hope Tabor, Carol Beth Cade was born on February 22,1927 in the small town of Okolona near the western edge of Clark County, Arkansas. She spent much of her life in the greater Memphis, Arkansas area. She came to Teachers College in the late 1960s to undertake graduate research and completed her Ed’D  in 1973 under advisement by Justin Schorr and William J. Mahoney with the dissertation, Color in Color Field Painting : Color in the Painting of Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, and Frank Stella. In the early 1980s, Carol Cade served as Secretary for the Board for the University Council of Art Education at City University of New York.

She contributed a chapter, “A Minister’s Daughter Remembers” to Crisis of Conscience: Arkansas Methodists and the Civil Rights Struggle (Little Rock: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, 2007), featuring personal stories by thirty Arkansas Methodist pastors, laypersons, and community leaders who lived through the struggles for civil rights in the 1950s. A former resident of Asbury Methodist Village, she recounts her father’s deep involvement, as well as her own awakening to racial attitudes and prejudices. New York, with its rich diversity in both art and education, was home to Cade who lived in Manhattan until her death at the age of 93.

On Schematic Drawings and Early Reaslism

Part Two of The Artistic Development of Children: Select Works from the Carol Cade Children’s Art Collection focuses on

The Schematic Stage typically begins around the age of 6 or 7, when according to Cade, “the child’s way of drawing settles for a time into a simple geometric style (the ‘schema’) which is considered so charming by adult viewers…. People and objects are drawn with a combination of geometric shapes and straight lines with each child developing his/her own combinations.” While “standard formulas” may appear, -- such as trees, the sun, houses with chimneys, and planets -- chosen colors correspond to common perceptions  (blue sky, yellow sun, green tree tops).

“Early Realism” tends to emerge between the ages of 9 and 11, though with gifted young children it can be seen earlier; figures have more “continuous lines”, often with  overlapping images, perspective, and shading --rendering drawings more three-dimensional. There is a growing interest in friends outside the family, details of their clothing, social awareness, often indicative of what the children would like to be or do.  Hobbies and activities are prevalent, including chess, dance, art and movie making, cheerleading and student government, while some children reflect on fairy tales, magic, and fantasy.   

From the ages of 6 through 11, children continue to develop cognitively, physically, and socially, as they gain a greater understanding of concepts, people, and the world around them. They may become more logical and organized in their thinking, while their confidence, self esteem, and friendships grow.

References

Brief Life History of Carol Elizabeth Cade. Family Search. Retrieved from: https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LKZM-NZS/carol-elizabeth-cade-1927-2020.

Cade, Carol Beth. Color in Color Field Painting : Color in the Painting of Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, and Frank Stella. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1973. Closed Stacks Dissertations  ND1489 .C33 1973.

Cade, Carol Beth. Signage. Early Realism. New York: Pace University, 1991]. Retrieved from: https://teacherscollege.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01TCCU_INST/939ve0/alma991006712413406971.

Cade, Carol Beth. Signage: Movement [New York: Pace University, 1991]. Retrieved from: https://teacherscollege.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01TCCU_INST/939ve0/alma991006712413306971.

Cade, Carol Beth. Signage: Pre-Schematic. [New York: Pace University, 1991]. Retrieved from: https://teacherscollege.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01TCCU_INST/939ve0/alma991006712413206971.

Cade, Carol Beth. Signage: Scribbling. [New York: Pace University, 1991]. Retrieved from: https://teacherscollege.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01TCCU_INST/939ve0/alma991006712413006971.

Cade, Carol Beth. Signage Stage. Schematic. [New York: Pace University, 1991]. Retrieved from: https://teacherscollege.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01TCCU_INST/939ve0/alma991006712413106971.

Carol Cade Children’s Art. Teachers College Digital Collections.

Clemons, James T  and Kelly L. Farr, eds. Crisis of Conscience: Arkansas Methodists and the Civil Rights Struggle. Burke Library E185.93.A8 C75 2007.

John F. Lidstone Collection. Minutes of the Board of the University Council of Art Education at City University of New York.  Teachers College Digital Collections.

We Remember This Day. Bulletin of the St Paul and United Methodist Church. [New York]. November 1, 2020. Retrieved from: https://stpaulandstandrew.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/All-Saints.pdf.

Acknowledgements

The Artistic Development of Children: Select Works from the Carol Cade Children’s Art Collection is made possible through the generous support of the Myers Foundations. It is curated by Jennifer Govan, Library Director and Senior Librarian and designed by Soeun Bae, Library Associate for Art and Design, with assistance from Kai Oh, fellow Associate for Art and Design.

Where: First Floor

When: October 14 - November 25

Poster Image: James W. People,  from Carol Cade Children's Art, Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University.