Knowing what is known: accessing craft-based meanings in research by artists

Much of the work of artists relies on tacit or inert understanding of their craft and consequently communicating this knowledge is not necessarily easy or straightforward. This presents many challenges for art-based researchers. It also presents teaching and learning challenges involved in developing appropriate education and training to prepare artists. Arts practitioners have ways of knowing about themselves as ‘artists’ and it is argued in this commentary that these have grown out of their own deep and personally significant experiences. The ways in which this knowledge is rendered also appears to be based in practical experience – that is, in particular communities of practice. Artists may typically express values and concepts that are practice based, are difficult to express in theoretical terms and reflect what is deemed by them as desirable or preferable conditions for the execution of their art form. Socially and artistically constructed ways of knowing are formed in practice and through practice as craft-based meanings. Craft-based ways of knowing are founded on particular meanings inherent in practice that are often difficult to communicate. By drawing upon the author’s own research into practical actor training, this exposition attempts to capture the particular types of knowledge artists possess and why these may present challenges for researchers in using more open-ended methodologies whilst ensuring they provide validity. In doing so, this exposition also examines the fundamental question of what represents ‘evidence’ in art-based research – knowing what is know

How arts education makes a difference: research examining successful classroom practice and pedagogy, edited by Josephine Fleming, Robyn Gibson and Michael Anderson

Book Review How Arts Education Makes a Difference: Research examining successful classroom practice and pedagogy, Edited by Josephine Fleming, Robyn Gibson and Michael Anderson. London and New York: Routledge, xvii+ 301pp., £95.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9781138845794. For the most part this book is a report on an ambitious Australian project drawing on the findings of a two-year longitudinal qualitative study led by an educational psychologist, who was the principal investigator, and was supported by a team of researchers. The book results from an Australian Research Council Linkage Project grant in partnership with the Australian Council for the Arts, 2009–2011. The project attempted to study the impact of arts involvement in the academic outcomes of 643 students from 15 schools on the East Coast of Australia in an attempt to investigate what might constitute best practice in learning and teaching in the arts within primary and secondary schools in Australia. The project was entitled “The Role of Arts Education in Academic Motivation, Engagement and Achievement” (AEMEA)

Art-led communitas for developing improved mental health in higher education in a time of rapid change

Aimed at those who have a responsibility for policy and practice in relation to education, health improvement and community, this position paper explores how the corporatization of the modern university has arguably shifted how students see themselves – and how academics see students and how students see academics. Increasingly, education is being economized in an age of neo-liberalist ideology. Universities spend considerable resources on recruiting students, promoting why students should attend university but arguably spend far less on how they enable students to be effective learners. The author argues that it is time to pay attention to two key responsibilities in higher education: well-doing and well-being. However, it is argued in this paper that universities are far too focused on behavioural well-doing agendas and not sufficiently focused on experiential wellbeing of staff and students. This paper concludes that there is an urgent case for realigning higher education through acknowledging the fundamental importance of communitas – defined as “inspired fellowship” to enable human, personal, spiritual and social well-being. It is argued that universities must take seriously the mental health of their staff and students, and in so doing, the role of the arts may provide plausible answers in realigning the culture of higher education

From ‘discovered’ to ‘constructivist’ in applied theatre programmes: Preparing postgraduate students as future artist-educators

© Ross W. Prior, 2016. The definitive, peer reviewed and edited version of this article is published in ArtsPraxis, Volume 3, pp. 39–55, 2016.Applied theatre as a named field is still relatively new yet ‘the range of applied theatre practice is vast; it happens all over the world as part of a grassroots movement involved in social change and community reflection’ (Prendergast & Saxton, vi: 2009). This article explores the underlying teaching philosophies inherent in the published course descriptors of a sample range of eight graduate/postgraduate programmes in applied theatre across three countries. The selection of these programmes, although somewhat random, has been based upon their prominence within academic parlances and those that provide programme documents in English. Consequently the representative sample survey is across one cross-section of postgraduate provision and is analysed in order to extract a range of philosophical themes underpinning learning and teaching. In distilling these philosophies the article presents a discussion of how the subject knowledge of applied theatre work ranges from ‘discovered’ to ‘constructivist’ in nature. In Ross W. Prior 40 turn these themes are interrogated against published research in the field and postulate on how applied theatre programmes might further consider the ways in which they adequately prepare their students as future artist-educators to work in this diverse and challenging field. An outcome of the survey revealed grand claims made in the published programme descriptors

Immediacy and personalizing: celebrating Philip Taylor

Many students, over four decades, could write about how Dr Philip Taylor’s scholarship has influenced their thinking and intellectual interests, particularly in the area of drama in education. As one of those former students, I can offer some insights into that particular influence of his, spanning a number of different countries around the globe. Numerous students have travelled great distances for the opportunity to study with him, which also forms part of my own personal story. However no matter whom you are or how you have been introduced to Taylor’s work, you will quickly recognize that he is deeply and authentically affected by the classroom experience

Afterword: towards a future paradigm

The use of art as research has greatly matured, and, despite the current preoccupation with measurement in the education sector, artistic research has continued to gain acceptance as a legitimate methodology for artists. Yet art-based research is still not completely and universally embedded within higher education learning and teaching approaches. The field’s continued lack of confidence in using art as a vehicle of research is one reason. There is a need to stop relying upon other disciplines to justify the power of art. If we acknowledge that words cannot always reveal the uniquely felt qualities of art, then we cannot persist in using words as exclusive modes of research. Personal, embodied ways of knowing are of interest to researchers and value the importance of knowledge that is incrementally gained through the acts of doing and being. However, art is empirical-art and art processes are observable and can be entwined throughout the art-making process as a methodology of inquiry. Proposed here, as a future paradigm, is the threefold primacy of art in research, learning and teaching-positioning art as the topic, process and outcome of research. Significantly art as research recognizes art objects as full participants and uses art as its evidence

Responsible care in actor training: effective support for occupational health training in drama schools

How actors are adequately prepared for their lifetime of work can be a vexed issue. However what is emerging in the field is data that suggests more can be done to prepare those entering the acting profession and to support actors throughout their career development. This article argues that teaching staff, support staff and industry partners might usefully enter into conscious dialogue with each other about ensuring a healthier interplay between students’ developmental needs, course expectations and workplace culture. Otherwise, students can be caught in a dilemma between accessing personal and interpersonal support as well as being professional and industry-ready

pH-dependent modulation of reactivity in Ruthenium(II) organometallics

The pH-dependent intramolecular chelation of a tethered sulfonamide ligand in ruthenium(II) arene complexes is demonstrated, a process shown to modulate metal-centered reactivity toward the model ligand guanosine 5′-monophosphate within the physiologically relevant pH region

The Application of Reversible Intramolecular Sulfonamide Ligation to Modulate Reactivity in Organometallic Ruthenium(II) Diamine Complexes

Metallation of biomacromolecular species forms the basis for the anticancer activity of many metallodrugs. A major limitation of these compounds is that their reactivity is indiscriminate and can, in principle, occur in healthy tissue as well as cancerous tissue, potentially leading to side effects in vivo. Here we present pH-dependent intramolecular coordination of an arene-tethered sulfonamide functionality in organometallic ruthenium(II) ethylenediamine complexes as a route to controlling the coordination environment about the central metal atom. Through variation of the sulfonamide R group and the length of the tether linking it to the arene ligand the acidity of the sulfonamide NH group, and hence the pH-region over which regulation of metal coordination occurs, can be modulated. Intramolecular sulfonamide ligation controlled the reactivity of complex 4 within the physiologically relevant pH-region, rendering it more reactive towards 5?-GMP in mildly acidic pH-conditions typical of tumour tissue compared to the mildly alkaline pH-conditions typical of healthy tissue. However, the activation of 4 by ring-opening of the chelate was found to be a slow process relative to the timescale of typical cell culture assays and members of this series of complexes were found not to be cytotoxic towards the HT-29 cell line. These complexes provide the basis for the development of analogues of increased potency where intramolecular sulfonamide ligation regulates reactivity and therefore cytotoxicity in a pH-dependent, and potentially, tissue-dependent manner