- Venue
- The MIT Press
- Location
Debates about the most effective and meaningful way to deliver an art education are necessarily tied up with debates about what it means to be an artist, what ‘practice’ involves, and the role art plays in society. Art School certainly doesn’t disappoint on this front.
A collection of essays, conversations, case studies and responses to questionnaires form the content of Art School (propositions for the 21st century), published in 2009 by Massachusetts Institute for Technology (The MIT Press). Art School is compelling reading for two reasons: firstly, there are few people I’ve met who have experienced a practice-based art course that do not have some critical appreciation of their education; secondly, there is a tension between the notion of teaching (which necessarily implies a passing on of knowledge or skills) and the idea of developing individual creativity – to say nothing of the arguments that surround the appropriate content of such an education.
Art School highlights a pertinent question about the purpose of an art education – which cannot simply be boiled down to the ‘production’ of artists. If we agree that an artistic sensibility or talent is discovered and nurtured rather than instilled and that art is subjective (in that there is no objective standard applicable to works of art), then it follows that an art education is inherently problematic: the qualities possessed by artists are many and varied and can hardly be taught, and the nature of ‘assessing’ the work produced by a student seems illogical if an objective standard does not exist.
The result of the incorporation of art education into a broader educational system necessitates the adherence to a standard, which in turn necessitates the creation of a curriculum and a set of criteria through which ‘work’ can be assesed. This approach seems at odds with the goal of most vocational courses, that of preparing students for the world and for a professional life.Robert Storr’s views concisely summarise a contradiction that both liberates and condemns art education:
‘Genius needs no education. It is sui generis and self-sufficient, effortlessly assimilating what it needs to know of the world and the expressive means it requires. Accordingly, genius is not the problem of art schools.’
Art School is a curiously inspiring book, in that it raises questions about the nature of creativity and the value of the arts, explaining the idea of art education as a problem to be solved, and stimulating a desire to solve problems and create solutions – in a sense doing what many courses attempt, and probably largely fail, to do. Michael Craig-Martin, in conversation with John Baldessari:
‘…you can’t have a proper curriculum. There are no basic things. What’s basic for one artist is not basic for another artist. And so you can’t have basics; you can’t build it in the normal curriculum way… a school, certificate or not, cannot authorize someone to be an artist.’
Quite apart from offering stimulating and provocative discourse on a subject that many artists will have personal experience of, Art School also explores the unique position of the arts and arts practitioners in the wider world. Despite an overwhelming feeling of disatisfaction and frustration with many current educational practices, the numerous professionals whose texts feature in Art School still offer cause for hope that in arranging sets of people with groups of artists in a place with a common purpose, great stuff could ‘happen’.
Art School is a treasure trove of essays, interviews, conversations and case studies that not only explore the complexities of what an art education is and how it can be delivered, but that tackle the broader issues of the currency of art education, the position of the artist in society and the validity of separating instruction and practice.