Artist-run initiatives : a study of cultural construction

PhD ThesisThis thesis presents research carried out at three artist-run initiatives (ARIs), all based in the United Kingdom: 85A in Glasgow, Empty Shop in Durham and The Mutual in Glasgow. In each instance, it is argued that members of these ARIs actively produced distinct ‘cultures’, understood here as ‘maps of meaning’ (Clarke et al. 1993 [1976]: 10), that in constructing reality in certain ways further acted to legitimate certain kinds of ‘art’ and certain kinds of ‘artist’ for those involved. To conduct this enquiry, the thesis brings into contact a number of disciplines that do not often meet, including the analytic philosophy of art, the sociology of art, identity theory and educational research, and employs three mains lenses for enquiry: membership, identity and ‘learning’. The thesis argues that members in each of the three ARIs, through their ‘lived participation’ (Wenger 1998) of membership, constructed and navigated distinct cultures so as to ‘frame’ (Goffman 1974) particular artistic practices and artworks as salient, and to construct places in the world where they might ‘matter’ (Guibernau 2013: 28). Members further self-identified in relation to these cultures (Jenkins 2008), producing narratives (Ricoeur 1991) that would allow them to be heard as meaningful, and which at times allowed for a transformation of the self, whereby members were able to validate desired artistic identities, or to re-position themselves as increasingly confident and able. Further, although members did not necessarily indicate that they had joined the ARI in order to learn, they invariably suggested particular forms of learning that ‘pushed’ them to develop, to work in new ways, and to become artists of certain kinds. Here then, the everyday nature of meaning-making is writ large, for even the most ‘ordinary’ of tasks was nevertheless imbued with cultural and political ideals of the artist, and was frequently suggested to have resulted in artworks that would not, or could not, have been made in the same way elsewhere. However, while some members were able to draw upon the culture constructed within the ARI to significantly transform themselves, by no means were all members able to do likewise. As such, the thesis presents instances of cultural construction, and understandings of the categories of ‘art’ and ‘artists’, that were profoundly local, complex, unequal and at times, fraught. The thesis concludes by calling for more critical research into ARIs as key sites in the production of culture, and for an approach that takes seriously the ‘potent emotional content’ of identity-work, belonging and membership (Guibernau 2013: 2) within ARIs. It further considers the wider ramifications of such instances of cultural construction, both for understandings of ‘art’ and ‘artist’ more generally, and as a methodology for the study of artistic and non-artistic cultures that is ‘possible in practice’ (Peräkylä 2004) for those similarly seeking to discover who can do what in the world, who can be what, and how

Interview with Emma Coffield Dooley

An interview with Emma Dooley regarding her experiences in a one-room school house.https://scholars.fhsu.edu/ors/1132/thumbnail.jp

The multiple interfaces of engagement: towards a new conception of gallery learning

Drawing upon longitudinal research undertaken with Further Education students who visited an art exhibition, this article retheorises organised gallery learning. We argue that the significance of the gallery visit for students – and of their engagements with the exhibition and artworks – is elaborated and remediated over longer periods of time and through multiple ‘interfaces’. These include: the school or college; the gallery and the contingency of gallery events; the exhibition; internet websites, social media and mobile applications; the artwork and images of it; and an understanding of the self and other people (including the artist, teachers and gallery staff). Each of these has different possibilities that structure engagement, and sometimes interfaces ‘fail’ because of mundane contingencies or students’ dispositions. Also, interfaces don’t stand alone and need to be considered relationally for a more holistic and complex picture of ‘learning’ to emerge

‘Lacking’ subjects: challenging the construction of the ‘empowered’ graduate in museum, gallery and heritage studies

This article challenges what is now a common assumption in Higher Education; that teaching for employability will result in enabled and empowered graduates. Drawing upon empirical data, and Foucault’s concept of subjectification, we argue that discourses of employability instead encouraged museum, gallery and heritage postgraduate students at one UK-based institution to perceive themselves as subjects ‘lacking’ the resources needed for work – an understanding of self that formed prior to study, which then permeated the entire learning and teaching experience. Moreover, we note that the trajectory from ‘lacking student’ to ‘employable graduate’ is often reliant upon an accrual of assets (e.g. work experience, skills) not openly available to all. As such, the article sounds a note of caution with regards the rhetoric of employability within Higher Education, while giving voice to students’ perspectives and anxieties around employability

Discourses of integration and exclusion: Equal opportunities for university students with dependent children?

Despite the growth and diversification of the student population, many British universities are still organised to cater for young students without caring responsibilities. Drawing on feminist frameworks of gender equality, this paper explores the ways in which governmental discourse of equal opportunities is articulated, sustained and resisted by staff and studying parents in a 1960s university. While many respondents attempt to comply with the prevailing learner norms entrenched in government policy, some also articulate an alternative discourse justifying the 'special treatment' of non-traditional students. However, this paper extends a third narrative that attempts to re-imagine university as an inclusive space