Thank you to everyone who came and contributed to our first sessions today. We kicked off looking at studio culture, with a useful discussion about of the challenges around creating the studio online. Less with regards to the structures and logistics we work within but mainly around fostering the engagement, safety, collaboration and vulnerability this demands. In other words, conversations around passing on the culture itself.
One of the things that I noted is that nobody challenged my premise that studio culture is still needed in the arts and in arts higher education, despite being invited to. As I noted I have asked myself questions about whether in this modern age, and online, this should still be something we teach.
After much internal questioning I decided that due to what I know about industry and being a creative practitioner, it was of course still essential. However, much of my professional identity is still tied up with my practice work and I wondered if other academics and learning designers think differently.
From the discussion, we all seem to believe the same, and I think that is because we know our industry and our education sector. We all believe in community and know that we have a lot of external storms to weather, which we cannot do alone. This was heartening, because as I said, I personally feel there is coming a time in the creative arts when we will need to defend our choices and way of professional life.
From the discussion overall it is clear that we are working within very similar structures, and facing similar challenges in building online HE arts learning, in the way that we want and need it to be for the wellbeing of arts higher education and the creative industries as a whole.
Cato gives us an opportunity to collaborate and share, which was good to be involved with this morning. I enjoyed getting out of my online institutional bubble today and talking to people involved with online courses in other institutions.
Shefali Wardell
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