The Teaching Landscapes in Creative Subjects: Fine Art Area Report

Report written as part of a research project (The Pedagogy of Fine Art) exploring contemporary pedagogy and attitudes to teaching within the fine art subject area.

Rebecca Fortnum

Research Interests

Painting, Documentation, Visual Intelligence, Feminism
Profile

Rebecca Fortnum read English at Corpus Christi College, Oxford before gaining an MFA from Newcastle University and taking up a fellowship at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, USA.

With a distinguished history of teaching in the arts, Rebecca Fortnum has been a Visiting Fellow in Painting at Plymouth University and at Winchester School of Art; Visiting Artist at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Senior Lecturer at Norwich School of Art and Wimbledon School of Art; and Associate Lecturer at Bath Spa University and Central St Martins School of Art. She is currently Senior Lecturer at Camberwell College of Art, University of the Arts, London and Research Fellow at the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University.

She has received numerous awards throughout her career as a visual artist, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the British Council, the Arts Council of England, the British School in Rome and the Art and Humanities Research Council. She has exhibited widely including solo shows at the Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Spacex Gallery, Exeter, The Winchester Gallery, Kapil Jariwala Gallery, London, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, The Drawing Gallery, London and Gallery 33, Berlin; her work has been shown in group shows in New York, Maine, Budapest, Salzburg, Marseilles and Gdansk as well as numerous UK exhibitions. Recent group shows include 'Fluent: painting and words' (2002) at Centenary Gallery, London and 'Unframed: the politics and practices of women's contemporary painting' at Standpoint Gallery, London in 2004. Artist, writer, curator and researcher, she has contributed to various conferences, journals, magazines and books and was instrumental in founding the artist run spaces Cubitt Gallery and Gasworks Gallery in London.

Artists Statement

"My current research has evolved from my visual art practice, writing and curatorial work and includes the following:
• A chapter in 'Unframed: the politics and practices of women's contemporary painting' (ed Rosemary Betterton) entitled 'Seeing and Feeling': By positing the notion of the spectator as 'the site where the work happens' I explore the 'choreography' of the viewer. My account of the viewer's engagement positions 'looking...as a serial activity' that unfolds over time and is 'materially situated'. I also raise the question of the ethical relations between the artist, the work and her audience.
• My book, 'Contemporary British Women Artists: in their own words', (I.B. Tauris 2006), contains the interviews made during an AHRC research project. The book documents an important and influential sample of contemporary British women artists' thought. My introduction to the book reflects on the interviews themselves, drawing out issues of the artist's influences and processes.
• My curatorial project 'Inspiration to Order' is one outcome of the Visual Intelligences Research Project, an initiative within the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts that I have lead since 2004. Visual intelligence is used here to investigate the way visual artists think and make and the relationship between their thinking and making. Its overarching research question asks if documenting and evaluating artists' processes can demonstrate visual intelligence. The exhibition 'Inspiration to Order' documents artists' processes and outcomes.
• My exhibition at The Drawing Gallery, London in 2005, contained two series of works. The 'Rococo' series examined earlier critical accusations of decorativeness and the uncanny nature of symmetry. The work attempts to explore the emotional resonances of the purely decorative in order to ask questions about its communicative powers. A second series 'Lyric', incorporates disjointed lyrics and continues an earlier enquiry about the nature of looking and reading visual works."

Nicholas Houghton

Dr Nicholas Houghton is Course Director at the Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art and Design (cltad), University of the Arts London. He has worked in education for nearly 40 years, as a lecturer and tutor, teacher educator, researcher, manager and external examiner. At the same time he has developed his own arts practice.

Nicholas studied at Wimbledon College of Art; Slade School of Fine Art, University College London; Nova Scotia College of Art (NSCAD University) and Roehampton University. His PhD was in craft education and his research interests are in craft; the post-secondary art and design curriculum; assessment in art and design and social science research methods. A good proportion of his experience has been gained outside the UK and he has lived and worked in Canada, Portugal and Belgium. His teaching experience includes working at Université du Québec; University of Leeds; Ravesbourne College of Design and Communication; Cleveland College of Art and Design and Escola Superior de Educaçao de Viana do Castelo.

As well as teaching a range of art and design subjects, he has worked as an educational researcher. At London University's Institute of Education he helped to develop methods for undertaking syntheses of educational research findings. In addition, he has undertaken research for a number of government departments, agencies and councils, such as the Crafts Council, engage (the National Association for Gallery Education) and the Learning and Skills Development Agency, for which he undertook various research projects into widening participation. Nicholas is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Education through Art.