The last few weeks before the recent summer holidays have been marked by the final assessments and graduation of a new generation of artists and designers at all art schools. These have been exciting and festive weeks. Many interested people came to visit the graduation shows. Underlying the processes of assessment and graduation is the national education and professional profile for fine art and design.
Previous academic year, a national working group started to recalibrate these profiles on behalf of the OBK. On April 12, 2023, the working group organized a meeting to jointly discuss arts education. This meeting is the first in a series of meetings designed to bring together stakeholders and experts from different backgrounds. In this text, the working group shares an analysis as a result of all the conversations and input on April 12 and also shares below the planning for the upcoming 2023/2024 academic year.
On Wednesday, April 12, over 100 art education stakeholders gathered at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy to discuss the education and professional profile. The working group compiled the input into five schools of thought:
The place of art in society
There are calls for more social awareness in art education, and at the same time the intrinsic/independent position of artistic work is emphasized. Both are important and do not concern a duality. One is critical of the use of art for other (mostly economic) and applied purposes. The question is raised about the position of the cultural sector in complex, social issues. It is suggested that precisely artistic visual work, because of a critical eye (which can deal with the unexpected and because of designing power), is becoming increasingly important. Part of art education is creating social awareness and developing a critical eye from a designing and artistic visual attitude.
A context-driven art practice
During many conversations on 12th April it is discussed that art or design is inseparable from the context within which it is created or within which it “occurs. Students increasingly collaborate with or exhibit their work outside traditional art or design contexts. This requires new skills. A situated position has to do with having attention and commitment to the context in which you find yourself. Being “situated” somewhere teaches one to relate: it teaches one to understand one’s own blind spots and position. The centrality of a context-driven art practice raises the question of what the academies offer for learning to work in a situation or context. This has to do, for example, with learning to understand your material in a situated way, as well as your own position.
Responsibility
The need for responsible and sustainable art and design practice is endorsed by the sector. Current ecological issues are not unrelated to art education: just think, for example, of the influence of material use and travel movements in education. Sustainability in art education should not be treated as a separate issue, or only from a narrow biological perspective but also from an ethical and systemic perspective and from creative and reflective qualities.
Positioning
Being able to discover one’s position as an artist/designer should become an explicit part of the competency set. It touches on the ecosystemic approach to the cultural sector. At the basis of art education are ideas about authenticity and individuality, but the so-called “top” to which art education trains is no longer unequivocally formulated. Education itself needs more room for the development of artists’ and designers’ skills and in relation to disciplines, work practices and the world. This applies in different ways to the AD, BA and MA levels.
The academy as a construct
There was much emphasis at the April 12 meeting on discussing ideas and understanding around quality, assessment, frameworks and canon. In art education, this translates into selection and admission, among other things. Current frameworks, standards and design of education are going to change, with student engagement being important. Other pedagogical views are going to influence the form of art education, seeking diversity and variety in quality understanding. Part of educating artists and designers must also include questioning the academy as a construct.