Improving understanding of the arts world is an important part of preparing students for working life says Adam Powell as he profiles Bath Spa Universitys Artswork programme.
The problem with working with higher education, a learned friend told me as I was about to embark on my new role at Bath Spa University following 10 years of working in the arts, is that they speak a different language. Six months on and having experienced both the opportunities and challenges facing both the arts and higher education sectors, it is clear to me, however, that enormous potential exists for some innovative and exciting relationships between universities and the arts. I can understand my friends frustrations. It could have been the apparent inflexibility of degree programmes, the constrained timescales, or even the multitude of academic acronyms, quality assurance controls and sources of funding that exist in the higher education sector. However, with a common language and a shared sense of purpose and ownership, some great collaboration between higher education and the creative industries exists, most successfully when both parties work together to creatively blur the boundaries between them.
Last year, the Higher Education Funding Council for England designated Bath Spa University as a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) awarding a £2.35m capital injection plus revenue funding of £500,000 a year for 5 years. Artswork the name of the Centre will blur those boundaries and define new models of arts education, enhance the employability and self-employability of graduates in the creative industries and allow students to explore the greater competencies and lifelong values that learning in the arts can bring.
Students will benefit from a range of new facilities including a broadcast edit suite, a digital publishing house, a recording studio, a 200-seat theatre and performing arts studios, an interactive multimedia production unit, and a fashion house featuring state-of-the-art digital textile printing. The advantages of providing such cutting-edge facilities in an educational setting are manifold. Not only do these learning spaces present optimal environments to inspire students creativity and experimentation, the added familiarity of current technologies will ease their transition from education to the world of work with a greater sense of confidence and self-belief. Furthermore, the use of current technologies enables the institution to attract the highest calibre of industry experts to demonstrate specialised professional practice to compliment taught theoretical background. But Artswork isnt just about the classrooms; its about what takes place in and around them. The development of a wide range of modules designed with direct industry input, projects with clients from business and the arts plus a number of student-led investigations will all lead to a greater understanding of education in the arts. Artswork will explore how the principal themes of creativity, technology and employability fuse together to enhance the overall learning experience of students in the creative industries.
New opportunities for placements and exchanges plus regular attendance at training events and conferences will help academic staff keep abreast of the latest industry developments. Bath Spa University will continue to be proactively aligned with current and future plans across the creative industries through regular contact with key national stakeholders such as Sector Skills Councils, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England as well as many cultural enterprises throughout the South West region.
As a final thought, its important not to assume that todays creative students will simply be tomorrows practitioners. Many commentators have highlighted the role of creativity in business and, recently, American author Daniel H. Pink made his case for a new economy driven not by knowledge and information but by innovation and creativity. Pinks future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind artists, designers, storytellers, big picture thinkers. Higher education and the creative industries should respond to this challenge, raise an awareness of this emphasis on creativity, thereby opening up a myriad of new career pathways for young creative people today.
As the work of Bath Spas CETL develops, both the educational and creative communities will benefit from its research and the direct experiences of staff and students. As Bath Spa Universitys new creative interface, Artswork will work closely with the creative industries to share best practice, share expertise and find that common language to enhance the future of our creative economy.
Adam Powell is Artswork Manager at Bath Spa University.
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