Some thoughts on being an artist educator...

How do we sustain reflexive and continually responsive practice in the face of uncertainty and the fragile systems around us?

There are multiple possibilities of being and 'being' is always becoming - not fixed / stagnant / finite.

'being is historically situated and needs constant conceptual reinterpretation as time passes' (Alan Thornton ref: Martin Heidegger)

Being an artist and being an educator (facilitator/tutor/trainer/teacher etc) can be understood as discrete but what do we gain by integrating these identities? and how can we tune into the multiple ways of being and being 'with' in this complex area of work? How does the interrelationship between artist/musician/dancer/ > researcher > teacher/educator allow new identities to emerge to strengthen practice?

Self reflection and action research (in critical dialogue with others and materials) positions our likeness and difference to other more traditional/hierarchical/patriarchal ideas and systems in our context and strengthens our ability to reimagine art education as a process of social transformation and helps us to transgress the seemingly fixed nature of cultural reproduction.

{after all art can be as instrumental in reproducing capitalist structures as any other human endeavour and we should remain alert to the interconnectedness and hypocrisy of this subterfuge).

I think we need methods that creatively inform our work through constant reassessment of context and identity.

I am currently developing a learning programme for artists working in and with communities in socially engaged ways. It will support developing practice that embraces aspects of pedagogy, contemporary arts and research.

This booklet is just a playful set of provocations to help me think through these questions.

1: make sure you know the 'why?'

2: set yourself up to fail

3: theory is your friend

4: nourish your practice / get to know your nervous system

5: context is everything

6: action > reflection etc

7: question everything

What would you add or erase?