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

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188 Leadbeater (2009a)
189 Xanthoudaki et al. (2003:8)
190 Pringle (2010:2)
191 Pringle (2010:6)
192 Tate (2009)
#5
PARTNERSHIPS
Growing future Innovators: a scoping study
Contemporary art institutions
can broker and build partners and
relationships for supporting innovation
that are long-term, reciprocal and
personalized…
by considering the teacher-student
relationship but also looking beyond it
to other partners in learning, such as
artists, peers, parents and families, as
well as business or community groups.
The momentum for building partnerships
between cultural and educational
institutions is growing, and healthy
relationships are characterised by what
Leadbeater refers to as “the art of working
with,” 188 (as opposed to the service
model of for), allowing for open, sharing,
democratic and participatory modes of
engagement. Xanthoudaki et al. observe that:
as far as school education is concerned,
museum visits are seen no longer as
an end-of term treat or as ‘unfocused’
outings, but as the ground for developing
creative and lasting partnerships
betweens museums and galleries and
educational institutions. 189
For over six years the Creative Partnerships
scheme in the UK has provided government
funding that has enabled hundreds of
experimental collaborations between artists,
art institutions, teachers and young people. In
this context, universities have been working
with these partners, helping to facilitate and
report on learning outcomes. These stories of
collaboration and co-production have been
published in the Enquire research project
and are indicative of widening networks
and learning support within the arts and
education sector.
A growing area of programming within
contemporary art organisations is ‘family
learning’, an intergenerational, experiential
and playful style of co-learning involving
young people and their parents, carers
and relatives. While these programs are still
largely under-researched in terms of their
impact, one of the rationales operating within
them is that “provision conceived jointly
for adults and children can lead to enduring
creative and critical enrichment for both.” 190
Outcomes, for example, might be improved
literacy or numeracy skills, yet, as Pringle
stresses, the more important opportunity
being offered to families is healthier attitudes
towards learning via “an open, varied, nonthreatening,
experimental, challenging,
playful, enjoyable experience with ideas and
objects.” 191
Reinforcing the impact of parental
involvement on student achievement that
is discussed in Section 2, Sally Tallant from
Serpentine Gallery suggests that one of
the reasons institutions establish family
learning programs is because “one of the
big barriers for children is their parents, who
are intimidated and don’t know the kind
of questions to ask. And if they can learn
alongside their children then it’s much easier
for them.” This is a motivating factor in why
Serpentine Gallery invites whole families to
engage with artists and their work. Recently,
for example, workshops were staged with
Abäke Design Collective and Yan-Ki Lee based
on imagining the family of the future. Families
could also ‘drop in’ on artists-in-residence
Polly Brannan and Imogen Luddy to create
new artworks and discuss their ‘future self’.
The value of this kind of involvement, says
Kate Ryan, Curator Children’s Art Centre,
Queensland Art Gallery, is that:
Parents can also see that [the arts are] a
valid form of existence in the community.
It’s real work. There are outcomes
which bring enjoyment and pleasure to
people’s lives.
Peer-to-peer styles of learning can also be
enabled through the various programs of
contemporary art institutions that recognize
the agency and affect of these relationships.
In addition to the peer-led project groups
identified earlier, another model relying
more on the involvement and coordination
of schools is the Tate Modern’s Turbine
Generation project. 192 Sponsored by Unilever,
this online education initiative enables crosscultural
exchange and collaborative learning
between students, and by 2012 is expected to
include classrooms from over thirty countries.
Each year the projects take their theme from
the artist who is commissioned to build a work
for the Tate Modern’s architecturally dramatic
Turbine Hall. Anna Cutler says: