Editorial: Discomfort Zones

During the pandemic many museums and galleries pivoted from onsite, in‐person delivery to develop a remote offer and to create digital learning resources and activity packs for children and young people. In this article, I draw upon my experience as practitioner researcher on the schools and teachers’ programme at the Fitzwilliam Museum to consider different approaches to supporting participatory creative pedagogies while the museum was closed. After discussing how the work built on and extended existing programming for this audience, I consider effective strategies for facilitating authentic and inclusive encounters with objects and artworks remotely. While some were empowered to take part and to engage, others were locked out through the ever widening social and digital divide. How can we overcome these challenges and make the most of the opportunities which this work has revealed? What are the implications of this work for our understanding of the role, function and future of museum and gallery learning?

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and Opportunities: Creative Approaches to Museum and Gallery Learning during the Pandemic

Noble¹

2021

“…This conception of disability as a space for thought and discussion has also been highlighted in recent special issues in the International Journal of Art & Design Education to improve people's learning capacity. For example, the 2019 issue titled ‘Creating Space’ covers the theme of inclusion whereas the 2020 issue titled ‘Discomfort Zones’ creates new learning events, capturing interest in the arts, and problem‐posing around social issues – including inclusivity and representation (Matthews 2020). A special issue of the International Journal of Education through Art , ‘Disability, Arts and Education’, emphasises boundary work in relation to disability.…”

Section: Art Education and Disability Studies As A Creative Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

An Online Art Project Based on the Affirmative Model of Disability in Japan

Ikeda¹,

Siddiqi²,

Mori³

et al. 2022

In recent years, disability has become a site for knowledge and artistic creation. In this study, local governments, universities, art museums and non‐profit organisations collaborated from 2019 to 2022 to implement an online art project for people with disabilities during the Covid‐19 era. The project's goal was to enhance the identity of people with disabilities, promote their interest in museums and artwork as local resources and engage them in society. The project was conducted in three phases with a sequence of connections using the affirmative model of disability by Swain and French (2000) as the theoretical framework. In Phase 1, we surveyed 370 people with disabilities and their supporters living in Hiroshima Prefecture to clarify the conditions promoting or hindering their appreciation of art exhibitions and the use of digital devices. In Phase 2, we conducted an online interactive appreciation workshop at a museum for seven people with disabilities based on the Phase 1 survey results. In Phase 3, an online exhibition was held using the artwork seen in Phase 2, and words and photographs were used as methods of expression. The interactive appreciation workshop and exhibition was built to provide the participants a safe and comfortable online alternative space, which led to individual empowerment and enhanced collaboration in the disability community. This study advocates the value of coexisting and co‐prosperous inclusion rather than inclusion that necessitates people gathering in the same place.

“…The 'drift' in a Deleuzian sense is a significant, and in some cases an irreversible shift, an 'absolute deterritorialisation' (Deleuze & Guattari 2013, 64) In addition to creating spaces for the extension of research ventures in the wider community of the arts and learning, CAL members have developed their research in lockdown, to continue investigating expansive forms of practice. We started 2020 with a theme of Discomfort Zones (Matthews 2020), looking at ways of exploring learning as it occurs in movements out of the passive comfort zones that can limit new developments and create blinkered world views. That series began with a presentation on therapeutic arts practice by Amanda Kipling and Neil Walton in November 2019.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding from the Small Screen – Arts Practice for Affective Digital Presence

Matthews¹

2021

Self Cite

Responding to conditions of lockdown and social distancing since March 2020, the Centre for Arts and Learning (CAL) at Goldsmiths is researching how arts practice and creative processes can sustain an affective presence in digital learning environments. In this article I discuss our research into how artist educators and students have adapted to the necessity for online learning, including the difficulties of doing so. I refer to a posthumanist, Deleuzian theoretical map that connects with the different collaborative, practice research assemblages we are working with this year. In discussion is a project for engaging with artists and creatives and their learning developments since March 2020 called Finding Comfort within Discomfort. Participants speak for themselves from Instagram and Linktree.