Comment by Susan Coles

• "Reading and viewing the AccessArt 40 Artist Educator Project is a pleasure. To see the resources online and travel along the path of each individual artist educator project is stimulating and exciting." Read More...

  The value of the visual arts in life long learning cannot be questioned. Not only is it essential to growth and development in young people in school, but also the transferable skills that it teaches are skills for life. It develops creative thinking, the ability to reflect, risk taking, enjoyment, pleasure, and it also teaches ‘making’ skills. In the 21^st century we must teach people to be visually literate. Art will help them to become viewers, consumers and critics of visual information. We must teach young people to navigate images, to evaluate them and to use them to communicate. Through making art they will learn to create and design meaningful visual information themselves, in both expressive, and innovative ways.

  Changes to the educational landscape in recent years have not diminished enthusiasm for visual art but provision has been eroded by curriculum changes and accountability measures. Funding for community-based activities has also been affected. This rich and diverse resource from AccessArt, will support all of those people who are working to engage people in the visual arts. One of the aims was to celebrate the unique approach of each artist to teaching and facilitation. The diversity in approaches and in content and methodology make this resource invaluable in an area where individuality is to be both encouraged and celebrated. These activities have allowed participants to create and design meaningful visual outcomes and information themselves in both an expressive, and innovative way. The activities also value the creative thinking process. They will serve as exemplar materials that can be shared and developed by other artist educators. They will encourage others to aspire to inspire.

  It has also involved the artist educators in their own formal professional development through designing a project and creating resources, and acts as a conduit for the professional development of others. This is active and creative networking through an online collection, and a place where comment and conversation can occur. It becomes a professional network, where the individuals who use it are part of a community, which, in itself has strong common beliefs. It values and promotes the visual arts as a learning experience, showcases the diversity of the artist educators and their practices, and becomes a stimulus for those who visit the web space and resource for inspiration. As AccessArt gathers more members, this sense of community and belonging grows and influences. Good teachers are a product of good nurture and it is an ongoing priority that we nurture educators. Keywords in these resources are showcasing and celebrating.

  Arriving on the well-designed webpage itself, invites the visitor to enjoy and be inspired. The layout is easy to navigate and to follow. Each of the projects is given its own thumbnail; all of these are visually exciting/inviting and take you into the accessible format of reading the descriptor and then following the project, stage by stage, through photographs (sometimes video) and explanatory text. Context and rationale are also explained. The variety of context is important, there are workshops in primary schools, secondary schools, museums, galleries and public spaces. There are also artists sharing their practice from their studio bases.

  Hyperlinks and video links flow well in the design of the pages, and the invite to add a link to a Pinterest page is another way of taking the information to a wider audience. Being able to share via social media, at the click of a button, increases audience range and potential membership.

  Connecting to the artist educator though their personal photo image and web links and the short (but useful) biographies are very valuable. This places them as real people who visitors to the webpages can connect to.

  One of the stated aims was to celebrate the artists’ unique approach to teaching and facilitation, highlight the value of their contributions

  and broaden and enhance educational and creative experiences. This aim has been achieved through the accessibility of the high quality resources, and also through taking some of the activities into the school and community setting, and seeing artist educators work with learners in a “live” brief situation. The benefits of this, to each community, is a legacy of good and creative practice in art, craft and design.

  If the audience can be estimated at 60000+ at the time of the evaluation, then I would anticipate seeing this grow as it is disseminated across local, regional, national and international networks and social media platforms. The World Wide Web has created a space for teachers where they can share and where autonomous professional development is supported. The 40 Artist Educator Project is a successful and positive model for such practice. Quality assurance is guaranteed through the knowledge and experience of Paula Briggs and Sheila Ceccarelli. This has also led to a diverse range of practitioner and foci in the collective projects. Small scale, large scale, two-dimensional, three dimensional, permanent, transitionary, traditional, contemporary, individual, group, risk taking and problem solving, all of these (and more) are covered in the 41 projects.

  Working with other organisations and partners has also been integral to the success of the Artist Educator Project.

  The projects are not just about making, they are about knowledge, evaluation, critical understanding and generating ideas and responses. “Through their active participation pupils learn to explore their imagination, generate ideas, acquire skills and apply judgement.” NSEAD National Curriculum Guidance June 2014. Children’s well-being is enhanced by directly engaging with the visual arts.

  From my point of view these resources need to be signposted and shared, with informal evaluations as part of the online/social media conversations. Working with other organisations and partners (local and national) has also been integral to the success of the Artist Educator projects. This will support the dissemination of them.

  If the 40 Artist Educator projects are added to, then, I would suggest more gender and ethnicity balance, to reflect life in modern Britain. This balance would continue to build on the social, moral, cultural and spiritual elements of these projects. In an education system, which is heavily slanted towards numeracy and literacy, the visual arts allow children to create their own reflective spaces and to express themselves in a way that develops sense of worth and well-being. Teachers are pushed for time to be creative with their own planning for the subject. AccessArt has created a portal to excellence and ideas, which will inspire them to be more creative teachers.

  Susan Coles, Immediate Past President of NSEAD
  February 2015
  https://twitter.com/theartcriminal