Creating and sustaining an effective learning environment in the field of visual art

This paper will consider the issue of creating and sustaining an effective learning environment for the study of visual art within the broader learning situation of an Institute of Technology. It will consider how the perceived threat to effective art education implied by the absorption of the art school into a larger more general educational institution, can be turned to positive advantage. It will aim to show that the changing nature of art practice, from finely crafted object to 'the manipulation of signs' (Forster), can best be facilitated by a pluralistic (in subject terms) learning environment. It will also consider the importance of the latter in developing an appropriate location for art research, and in turn the influence of the latter on developing an effective learning environment. The common ground between the process of art-making and the research process, first identified by Cornock (1978), will be reconsidered from the point of view of contemporary practice in both areas. In recent years there has been much debate on the desirability or otherwise of 'separate' education for artists, cf the current arguments over whether or not the National College of Art and Design should merge with UCD. It has been, and still is in some cases, forcefully argued that the most effective learning environment for artists is the independent art school. Whilst there are certain advantages in this, this paper will argue that these are outweighed by the disadvantages. It must also be recognised that the argument for educational 'apartheid' is now largely academic anyway, as in practice many of the old art schools have been incorporated into larger general educational institutions, for example Waterford School of Art is now part of Waterford Institute of Technology. The paper will take the form of a general contextualising discussion, followed by a specific case-study