GrowinG Future innovators - ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative ...

183 Diamantopoulou
(2007:125)
184 Diamantopoulou
(2007:88)
185 Diamantopoulou
(2007:125)
and the Tate Collection was utilized as a key
resource for developing a series of multimodal
workshops held across the gallery and
school classroom. The project culminated
with a family day and exhibition of the young
people’s work at Tate Britain. The research
report states:
Throughout the programme, the art
educators have successfully used the
museum resources in order to design
a range of activities that would enable
children to explore writing in a variety
of contexts and through different
perspectives (role play, poetry, lyrics
writing and picture books). In an attempt
to build bridges between the artworks
and the school writing skills that had to be
achieved and served by the project, the
artists designed ‘creative’ and ‘innovative’
metaphors that could possibly generate the
desired outcome. 183
In one scenario, punctuation was taught
through a series of visual and kinaesthetic
activities inspired by artworks, such as
Standing Mobile, a painted metal suspended
structure by Alexander Calder. “The yellow,
red and green shapes attached to the mobile
were transformed into full stops, commas and
exclamation marks,” which through cut-out
projects and drawing exercises were also
transformed into lively caricatures of animals
and monsters. 184
Part of the success of this innovative literacy
project was deemed to lie in its ‘integrated
approach’ and the finding that “literacy
events can take place in spaces that the
curriculum does not make provision for, such
as the gallery space.” 185 The research team
acknowledged that government policy, school
curriculum and arts programming can align
with undeniable synergy, yet it also observed
that these frameworks compete and at times
create tension. This raises the issue of how
much cultural institutions can or should work
to the dictates of a school curriculum.
Contemporary arts institutions tend to
privilege the artists’ ideas and processes
first and then build the relevant school
curriculum links where necessary or
desirable. As Jenny Simpson of AWESOME
Arts says, “we program first, and then we look
at how it fits.” Across the eighteen interviews
conducted for the Growing Future Innovators
scoping study, the level of curriculum
integration was cited as either high or
medium but very rarely was it considered
to be low or non-existent. Resource packs,
for example, were almost always created for
teachers in order to relate exhibition and
performance programs to classroom activity
and agendas.
The valid concern of Ben Roberts at Camden
Arts Centre, however, was that contemporary
arts institutions should not be seen as
providing a form of surrogacy for the school
system. With regard to the curriculum, he
notes “obviously, we need to be aware of
those things because if we’re talking about
developing relationships with the teachers
and the schools, certainly in the first instance
it would be difficult to create that sort of
relationship without being able to make
that sort of link.” With regard to Camden’s
learning programs at large, Anna Vass
adds, “you could easily look at some of our
projects and end up with the same number of
correlations to the curriculum as you might
if you’d have set up that project to meet
those in the first place.” One way of perhaps
clarifying the interrelationship is offered
by Fiona James who, speaking about the
Malthouse Theatre’s program, says “it doesn’t
in any way replace the classroom experience
but what it really does is provide an
excellent springboard into better classroom
experiences.”
Many arts organisations make it a high
priority to provide relevant, practical and
inspiring opportunities for teachers who
could then innovate with their colleagues
and their students. “We’ve recognized
that it’s one thing to be able to provide
those opportunities to kids, but it’s another
thing to actually be influential in what
happens in schools” says Adrian Alexander
from SoundHouse. “So, the growth of the
program for students” he continues “was
accompanied by the development and
growth of a very broad professional learning
program for teachers.” For the Performance
Space in Sydney, this kind of professional
development support has recently manifested
as a Teachers’ Club, which arranges a
series of meetings, workshops and new
performance showings for local teachers
who want to explore the possibilities of
interdisciplinary arts.
Growing future Innovators: a scoping study 57