Tag: mental-health

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Art Education as Training of the Senses

I will be leading an online discussion on the theme of ‘Art Education as Training of the Senses’ on Monday 23rd Feb from 6 – 7 pm as part of the National Association of Fine Art Education’s NAFNET series of events. The event is free and open to non-members. You can book your place here.

I will give a short introduction to open the discussion. Below is a bullet-point overview of the introduction:

Background

  • BA Fine Art with Psychology at Worcester
  • Curriculum redesigned to integrate psychology into fine art teaching
  • Students interested in art therapy often have lived personal experience of mental health issues, neurodevelopmental disorders and autism, and secondary experiences of severe mental health conditions, addiction and dementia
  • Covid pandemic of 2021 exacerbates problem of overwhelm of NHS mental health support
  • How might socially-engaged arts practices address public mental health crisis
  • Arts and Health Research Group at UW came out of that

Teaching Context

  • A significant percentage of students have common mental health conditions, neurodevelopmental disorders or autism characteristics
  • Fine Art education historically welcoming of neurodivergent people
  • Studio teaching is especially accommodating of these differences
  • Studio as safe environment
  • Attention issues evident for the last 20 years. Students glued to mobile phones
  • Smart phones directly implicated in an increase in mental health issues, especially anxiety, depression and ADHD
  • Intensified by consequences of Generative AI
  • How to get students off their phones and screens
  • Five ways to Wellbeing: Human connection, physical activity, attentiveness, learn new skills, giving

Art Education as Training of the Senses

  • Art as Education of the Senses: 19th century idea (John Ruskin), roots in Schiller’s Letters on Aesthetic Education (German Romanticism, Goethe)
  • Alternative educational models: Steiner, Montessori, Reggio Emilia
  • Marshall McLuhan: new media transform the ‘ratio of the senses’
  • Deep Listening: tasting, touching, hearing, smelling, sensing
  • Mindfulness and embodiment practices: bring the body back into teaching
  • The senses think. Thought is a sense.
  • Aligning Fine Art Education with Creative Health

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Re-Imagining Aesthetic Education for Creative Health

I will be presenting my paper ‘From the Education of the Senses to Creative Health: Re-Imagining Aesthetic Education for the 21st Century’ at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance’s annual conference ‘Igniting Creativity’ on the 8th of January in Leeds. Tickets for the event can be booked here and you can see the schedule here.

Here’s a summary of what I’ll be addressing in my talk:

‘Contemporary British culture is wrought with seemingly intractable economic conflicts and social inequities, particularly in the areas of education, health and the arts. Yet despite poor prospects of future financial rewards, young people still choose creative arts degrees all over the UK.

The values that bring young people into arts education – improving mental health, meaning, non-conformity, play, self-expression, social critique, social justice – have all been embedded in the arts since the beginning of 20th century, but they fall outside accountable metrics of the socio-economic good.

Paradoxically, as regional arts programs struggle to survive, the government’s Creative Health agenda is gaining national momentum. Is there a way for us to revitalise the 19th century ideal of art as an “education of the senses”, reconnect it to the broader project of improving individual and social wellbeing though increased sensory awareness and embodied cognition, and align it more closely with Creative Health?’

I will also be involved in workshops and discussions led by Friends of the Future, a newly established community interest company supporting, educating and offering connection to mental health professionals and community artists who are providing creative activities to individuals and communities in and around the Yorkshire region. We will be launching our website at the event.