The Artist Teacher

Artists who teach or teachers who make art? To explore the identity of Artist Teacher in contemporary educational contexts the ethical differences between the two fields of art and learning need to be considered. Equity is sought between the needs of the learner and the demands of an artist’s practice, a tension exists here because the nurture of the learner and the challenge of art can be in conflict. The dual role of artist and of teacher have to be continually navigated in order to maintain the composite and ever changing identity of Artist-Teacher. The answer to the question: how to teach art? Comes through investigating attitudes to knowledge in terms of the hermeneutical discourses of ‘reproduction’ and ‘production’ as a means to understand developments in pedagogy for art education since the Renaissance. An understanding of the specific epistemological discourses that must be navigated by Artist Teachers when they develop strategies for learning serves to explicate the role of art practices in considering the question: what to teach? The answer to which lies in debates around technical skills and the capacity for critical thought.