Well done PICA. Hatched 03: Healthway National Graduate
Show is another thought provoking exhibition of diverse
works. Congratulations to all graduates exhibiting
here and a hearty welcome to interstate visitors.
I wish all participants the very best in their future
endeavours and hope that these talented people in
forthcoming years remain supportive of the broader
arts community and contribute actively in diverse
ways.
When Sarah invited me to respond to the topic of
Artist & Educator: maintaining an arts practice
while teaching art within a university context, I
was somehow relieved to note that “artist”
was placed before “educator”. It may seem
trivial, but most of my time and energy has for several
years been absorbed by university-related responsibilities
and recently I’ve started to wonder when or
whether I’ll ever achieve a satisfactory balance
between my practice and working in a tertiary context.
A quick look in my diary to confirm the date with
Sarah immediately revealed that I was in for a wicked
forthcoming fortnight of day and night overdrive in
my effort to organise and install a large project
during a teaching week.
The timing of this talk coincides with the challenge
of locating a workable outcome between a physically
and emotionally exhausting temporary installation
in the city centre earlier this week and ongoing teaching
and administrative responsibilities in the week prior
to final assessments. In this sense, the invitation
and topic of discussion was timely and in this paper
I touch upon some of the challenges faced by many
tertiary educators in the visual arts, provide some
student voices on why they think it’s important
for artists as educators to work outside the institution
and discuss strategies some artist-educators employ
to achieve some sense of balance or reward from engaging
in both disciplines.
My choice to work in a university context is formed
largely through my desire to assist people in enriching
their own lives and constructing an environment that
nurtures positive human relations and creative outcomes.
My primary philosophy as an educator in the visual
arts is to help individuals empower themselves. I
encourage students to develop confidence, independence,
and various skills that compliment their goals. I
try to provide meaningful, value-added experiences
that challenge the intellect and stimulate research,
while also encouraging an experimental and lateral
approach to practice. In short, I enjoy promoting
critical thinking and delight in encouraging people
to experience the world around them in a sensory enlightened
manner.
My ambition is to also familiarise students with
many facets of the visual arts sector so that when
they graduate, they are better prepared to locate
meaningful opportunities for extending their practice
or other interests within the visual arts. My teaching
is informed by my own practice and research and also
by what I learned at uni and what I feel could have
been improved in my formal education.
In the lead-up to today, I've been asking students
how important it is to them that lecturers maintain
an active practice. A considered response from a second
year student certainly reinforces what I think, and
my aspiration to practise what I preach. I quote:
The educator's intentions in pushing young artists
towards an extended immersion into the arts community
needs to reflect their own commitment to this practice…
Students respond more to those who are seen to have
found a balance in maintaining and living out their
own practice as well as being committed to the development
of younger artists. The student has the opportunity
to draw upon and learn from the more experienced
practitioner, gaining an insight into the working
process and how to deal with the strong emotive
and mental strain by channelling it into a productive
and enriching artistic life. E. Paterson
In terms of maintaining my visual arts practice while
teaching art, there is no doubt that working in a
university context is an enriching experience. I thoroughly
enjoy working with a wide cross section of people
in an intellectually stimulating and highly creative
environment. There is the fantastic opportunity to
discourse closely with the talents of visiting artists
from around the world, students who are passionate
about their studies (and who in turn challenge me),
collaborating on projects with other faculties and
schools, and working in the vicinity of numerous staff
with specialised interests. Technicians provide a
solid support for teaching and learning and many will
go to extreme lengths to assist keen students and
staff alike.
However, in my enthusiasm to bridge a professional
arts practice and learning to be an excellent educator,
I often ask myself if my commitment to both arenas
is sufficient and yet on the other hand whether it
is sustainable as it is. I worry as well that the
continuous stress of trying to excel at both is adversely
affecting my physical health.
I sometimes fail to achieve my own artistic goals
and cannot possibly meet all the expectations of either
the university or the community of professionals in
the visual arts sector. I ask myself why. And I conclude
that teaching with integrity is incredibly time consuming
and often emotionally intensive. Visual arts educators
deal with so many unique and challenging individuals
who, on a daily basis, push their personal experiences
and understandings of their own identity, sexuality,
and egos to which we must respond in a constructive
way. In addition, I generally have an open door policy
because I know it can mean a world of difference to
a student. I’m not simply an educator. I’m
a humanist and there are times when I fulfil the role
of counsellor, confidante, friend, mentor, and storyteller
to help relieve overwhelming concerns that may paralyse
the learning process.
I am employed four days a week. Ideally, therefore,
every fifth weekday should be applied towards maintaining
my practice. However, during teaching weeks this usually
isn’t possible as my responsibilities extend
far beyond the lecturing and contact hours I have
with students. I am also required to perform ongoing
administrative and coordination duties in addition
to university sponsored professional development incentives
which staff are strongly encouraged to participate
in. I also spend many weekends and evenings developing
new courses or lectures in my efforts to provide students
with a broader context for studying sculpture and
opportunities to try out many sub-disciplines associated
with contemporary sculptural practice. As challenging
and rewarding as these multiple strands of my employment
may be, collectively these activities absorb my own
practice for which my day off was intended with no
strings attached. Ironically, because of my part-time
status, I am technically entitled to less annual leave
so the problem is somewhat compounded.
The concerns I outline here are by no means intended
to undermine the place of my employment, but rather
they are an honest reflection of the question posed
to me in terms of the challenges that are faced by
me and by so many other artist educators. There is
no doubt that in the few years that I have been teaching,
I have missed opportunities to promote and develop
my own practice. This has occurred largely because
such opportunities unfortunately coincided with teaching
weeks or other pressing university-related matters.
I’ve long observed other artist-educators.
I recall Kay Lawrence sitting here last year admitting
that she gets up at five o’clock every morning
to work on her tapestries. She was fine with that
because it was time for herself, while the rest of
the family still had their toes pointed towards the
stars. A colleague of mine regularly works throughout
the night arriving at work with the deepest darkest
circles under his eyes and a slow half shuffle as
though too tired to pick up his feet. A former colleague
managed to maintain his practice to some extent by
avoiding many administrative duties. Fiona Hall’s
work ethic is so intense that I’m almost certain
she works harder than most post grad candidates who
have one month to go. I heard recently that she left
her teaching position.
Over lunch yesterday with colleagues I brought up
the question – how do you maintain your practice?
An immediate response was that there was no balance.
We discussed various models used by university-employed
artists around the country. One solution I immediately
gravitated to was job sharing. Each artist works full
time for half a year as an educator on an annual .5
salary and takes the remaining six months to devote
to their practice. Several other art schools factor
in a professional development day each week for full-time
staff. Although it’s there on paper, not all
staff are able to squeeze their workloads into four
days. Another possibility was leave without pay or
buying oneself out by using grant money to pay for
teaching relief.
In my efforts to maintain my practice, I'm trying
to manage my time more effectively. Where possible,
I have tried to schedule my exhibitions during non-teaching
weeks. This provides a lovely uninterrupted period
of practice during my holidays. The irony in this,
however, is that the holidaying student body often
doesn't hear about my work in time to experience it
first hand. My installation project earlier this week
was scheduled to take place over the weekend and my
non-teaching day in an effort to minimise disruption
to my classes. In this case I was able to invite students
to join me in the project thereby providing an opportunity
for some live action and on site installation decision-making
experiences.
In reflection of this project one student wrote:
It is important to the student to see and interact
with their educators outside of the university context,
both informally at gallery openings, conferences,
and shows, as well as pre-arranged meetings. It
eases the sometimes strained relationship created
within a structured environment where set outcomes,
marking criteria, and assessment-based work builds
up a degree of restraint between educator and student.
I also try where possible to work as part of a team
with other staff. I have on occasion swapped teaching
days with a colleague working in the same studio area
and occasionally grovelled and asked accommodating
visiting artists to take over a class so that I could
pursue the installation of a new work or travel to
a major exhibition of contemporary art. It is imperative
for my both my practice and my ability to teach that
I foster connections with the broader national and
international arts community. One of my students remarked:
It is vital for the ongoing presence of the School
[for it] to be felt outside of the architectural buildings
on campus. Prospective students certainly consider
the work of those they would be learning under as
a reflection of the School's principles, flexibility,
ethos and vision.
I would like to develop more projects that take students
off campus and in which both staff and students participate.
In the interim, however, I make every effort to attend
as many openings as I can, particularly those that
include the participation of students.
I know that my capacity to be an effective educator
rests in my ability to actively maintain a practice
that seeks to construct dialogue with world events
and contemporary arts practices beyond a regional
level. I reconcile my feelings of inadequacy in both
fields knowing that it is my choice to work in two
disciplines, that the School I work with is one of
the most dynamic in the country and I am thrilled
and honoured to be part of it, and also because the
efforts of some students validate my efforts to inspire
passion for the arts. They bring to their works many
unique personal perspectives and experiences of the
world around them. I suppose ultimately I’m
excited to be part of a supportive network of people
who endeavour to foster thought provoking and creative
dimensions to being alive in a very complex world.
