No sense of place?

Written by Professor Linda Drew, ​Creative Education Champion

In February this year I started work advising a University about their existing and new space/studio provision and planning for effective use in the creative art and design courses. I was interviewing staff and students about their perceptions and experiences of using the spaces for learning. Then the lockdown started and even my information gathering phase had to change to a much more virtual mode, and now my whole focus has shifted to advice on how those creative arts students interact and learn to practice when some of those facilities are not accessible. I relate strongly to this statement on the WonkHE blog this week by Paul Greatrix :
‘…Universities are fundamentally communities of scholars and not just the buildings that house them. But the buildings give us a sense of place, identity and solidity; the campus helps make our institutions what they are and generally facilitates rather than hinders the progression of learning and research.’ ( accessed 14 April 2020)

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I’ve always believed that value of practice-based creative arts education lies in the practice-based pedagogy, which truly immerses participants in a rich and diverse range of activity designed to develop both a practice identity and competence in tandem. So, what have I learnt recently?

1. Without the space, students can still learn. They can think, observe, act and make. Most importantly they can reflect on action and do this alone, or in discussion – with peers, with tutors. This is happening on the phone, on WhatsApp groups, social media and via online meeting technologies.
2. Universities offering creative arts courses have rallied round to step up virtual resources, be they learning resources (archives, online galleries, guides, tools etc) or interactive e.g. Moodle, Collaborate Ultra, Aula. Most of the former are opening up access to regular resources and students are often familiar already. Creative Art and Design courses have piloted many approaches to interactive online engagement, but take up is patchy across the sector.
3. Universities may claim they’ve ‘gone digital’ in a mere few weeks but the test of this will be how much of this is content driven - useful for a knowledge acquisition focus - and how much is interactive and works with communities of practice in the academy and in the creative industries. Many staff as well as students will need to practice using this kind of exchange in order to become competent and move beyond the practical steps (switching on and getting in) to using the learning space effectively.
4. Students on creative art and design courses want to become practitioners in the creative industries, they want to immerse themselves in the practice by taking part in authentic activities – like being in a studio, exhibiting their work, debating their work with peers. Temporarily that studio is their home or hall of residence, with all of the restrictions and practical issues that involves right now. Home studio will be a reality for many, and it won’t be nearly as well equipped as our University spaces but a kind of learning can take place.
5. If the lockdown, restrictions on travel and how we use buildings persists this will continue to prevent students’ access to specialist equipment.  More innovative approaches to equipment loans will have to be devised. Some specialist Universities (Arts University Bournemouth, Ravensbourne University London) already have extensive equipment loan and risk assessment processes in place.

No sense of place? The University as place may be changed forever by this period of social and economic withdrawal, and creative art and design courses will have to adapt as suggested above to a more flexible sense of place over the coming months and years, growing in ways that can also truly reflect the changes in our creative industries too.

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