Creating Acts of Pedagogy through Art Practice

co-presented with Dr. Rita Irwin, Dr. Donal O Donoghue, and Dr. James Sanders

Abstract:

As artist-educators working in higher education, we have taken great interest in understanding the pedagogic turn in contemporary art practice.  How might we look to the discipline of art to understand acts of pedagogy? To date, we have  come to understand that the pedagogic turn in contemporary art practice is situated within an interdisciplinary environment that is a committed to inquiry, dialogue, and critical self-reflection. It problematizes societal issues and engages the artist and his/her public with conceptual ideas through visual practices. The pedagogic turn is therefore situated within a problematization of issues and orients art practices to a pedagogy of understanding through visual inquiry. In this session, we focus on the NAEA strategic goals of learning and community, and discuss how a pedagogic turn in contemporary art practice may inform the work of art-educators working in the contexts of higher education (an art school and a teacher education program).