Gendering, careers and the art school curriculum
Date
2008
Authors
Adams, J.K.
Editors
Connellan, C.
Katheleen, K.
Katheleen, K.
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Conference paper
Citation
ACUADS 2008 Conference: Sites of Activity/ On The Edge, 2008 / Connellan, C., Katheleen, K. (ed./s)
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
ACUADS 2008 Conference (1 Oct 2008 : UniSA, Adelaide, South Australia)
Abstract
Tertiary art education, the development of an arts industry and the expansion of the market have changed the nature and purpose of art schools. One indication of this change is the increase in professional and career-based courses within the art curriculum. At one level these courses are a positive development, making particular knowledges explicable and available, while providing new career paths for young artists. A more problematic assessment, however, is that they professionalise auxiliary roles traditionally regarded as feminine. Further reinforcing the association of professionalism and femininity is the pressure on art schools (in line with universities vocational and corporate-based practices) to emphasise the values of flexibility, cooperation, communication and consumption over avant-garde notions of originality, assertiveness and independence. This raises the question of the university art schools involvement in constructing a new subjectivity wherein a multi-professional, flexible, fluid identity replaces the singular role of artist. The proposition of the professionalised and feminized art school was put to students in an Honours Research Methods course with the findings informing this paper. In the rapidly changing workplace of the university there is little time for pedagogical reflection, so it is often these liminal spaces (of/between teaching and research) that foster inquiry and critique. Hence this paper, while addressing the topic of the art school as a gendered site will also consider how new emergent disciplines open spaces for reflection and curricular correction.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Access Status
Rights
Copyright 2008 Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools