Paper available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/11/artist-as-educator-examining-relationships-between-art-practice-and-pedagogy-in-gallery-context
This paper looked at the relationship between art practice and education in galleries through discussion. It included interviews with artists and explored their own perceptions of art and how this influences how they engage with leaners.
The artists interviewed for the paper described the process of art making as creative investigation and problem solving; intrinsic to this is active questioning and enquiry in the same way that a research process is undertaken. They shared that they valued curiosity, imagination, and risk taking in order to give themselves the freedom to explore an idea or interest.
Participants working with an artist during a community education session at Tate Modern
Photograph: © Dave Lewis
Above all, the artists interviewed valued looking, reflecting and critical thinking as significant to enable their own curiosity in art but also to enable learners to gain the tools to stop and notice, pay attention to, and differently interpret the material they are engaging with.
This paper concludes that the role of artists as educators is to facilitate learners becoming active makers of meaning, rather than passive recipients of knowledge. Their role is to encourage learners to embark upon a journey of constant questioning, gaining answers not just through being taught but through their own experimentation in a supportive environment.
We modelled how we wanted to conduct our workshops on the research done in this paper as it showed us that 'teaching' doesn't have to be people perceived as less knowledgeable listening to and accepting the words of someone perceived to be the most knowledgeable. This paper showed us that learning can be communal and that knowledge doesn't have to just flow in one direction, but that it can be shared and adapted between student and teacher as well as between students. We felt that this was the way we wanted the kids taking part in our workshops to think about their learning and their artwork so that it was their own creativity and imagination that drove their making and learning, not us.