“We are born makers. We move what we are learning from our heads, to our hearts, through our hands.” – Brene Brown

Let me take you on a pre-pandemic walk through a certain kind of campus. To the right you’ll find a building packed with performance spaces for dance, acting and music. Sprung floors and sound proofed studios, the buzz of group rehearsals and an occasional burst of guitar echoing down the corridor. To your left an abundance of individual studio spaces, the murmur of students concentrating on pieces of work, seeking critique from their peers. Just over the hill, an open plan area with specialist equipment designed for makers; looms, milling machines and 3D printers, creative projects in different stages of completion and the fizz of ideas coming to life in tangible form. You get the idea… flash forward to 2020 and you’ll see a very different kind of campus. 

Spaces have been used in accordance with social distancing, but students are largely having to adapt to courses delivered in a method that sometimes appears at odds with the subject they are studying. Staff too are having to make the same changes, taking in depth previously very tactile sessions and translating them into a mode centred on blended delivery. Providing feedback and critique on work that can’t currently be experienced in person. Diversifying delivery and assessment while maintaining authenticity of the subject area is often a tricky line to walk. 

Is what we’re experiencing now a hint of the shape of things to come? The move to more online delivery has provided opportunities as well as challenges, and as many institutions look to increase their fully online provision what does this mean for practice based subjects? With arts funding regularly in the news what lessons can we learn from our experiences to help secure arts education for the future? 

Is creative education falling behind article – Creative Review

Join us on Wednesday 18th February when we can come together and discuss ideas and experiences of arts based education further.

If you missed the Tweetchat on the 18th, you can catch up with everything discussed on the Wakelet.

Amy Sampson is Head of Digital Learning at Falmouth University. She is passionate about creative arts education and has a wealth of experience spanning technical implementation, content production and online course development. Amy has helped shape Falmouth’s blended and fully online learning provision and enjoys the opportunities and challenges presented when practice based education and technology intersect. Amy holds an MA in Creative Education, fellowship of the HEA and is a member of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT).