Is art inherently pedagogical? Is it so because it is a form of discourse? Or is art none of it? — that is, neither discursive nor pedagogical? The practice of art is central to any consideration of how it is taught in Higher Education. Whether we agree or not, the likely candidate to teach art in Higher Education is firstly considered from the viewpoint of an art (or design) practitioner. Whether it is in Art Schools or in Art programmes offered in College, University or any other Higher Education institution, both art educators and educators of artists are expected to be arts practitioners. This is understandable, given that the very notion of art practice is considered as paramount to the understanding, dissemination and teaching of art. But is the practice by itself a guarantee of quality in teaching? Is it enough to be an excellent art practitioner to teach art? On the other hand, is pedagogical training enough to be an excellent art educator in Higher Education where one’s practice remains essential to one’s credentials and position as an art academic?

Here I will draw from two sources: (a) literature that directly or indirectly addresses the relationship between art and its educational-pedagogic sphere; and (b) art’s inherent pedagogical value(s) in the senses by which art practice can be described as a form of: (i) experimenting and making, (ii) exploring and finding, (iii) critiquing and understanding, (iv) experiencing and living, and (v) everything else, beyond and in between. To do so I am identifying five pedagogies which one can discern from the experience of teaching the creative arts: (de)Construction, Emancipation, Ignorance, Form and Unlearning.

Prof. Dr. John Baldacchino will be giving two seminars based on five lectures that he gave early this year to his students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in his class The Teaching of the Arts in Higher Education. These lectures will be available online together with various references to texts that he discusses as background to the two seminars.

In the discussion John will be joined by Prof. Dr. Samuel Guimaraes and Prof. Dra. Catarina Martins.

Registration is needed, until the 1st of May.