questions
contributions

home
back


    T-shaped thinkers - Drawing and its role in art school professional practice
    Stephen Felmingham

    Drawing is fundamental to all creative practice and teaching it begins with challenging student perceptions of what drawing can be: process more than outcome, journey more than arrival. Through the agency of drawing comes invention and the construction of a ‘middle road’ between theory and practice: that of the Platonic idea of poesis (the uncovering of meaning through making).

    This paper will examine the synergy that can exist between drawing and the teaching of professional practice in the art and design subject area. It will explicitly link drawing as a process in creative development to the teaching of entrepreneurial skills and the ability to notice opportunities (Kirzner, 1979, p.48). The paper argues for the centrality of drawing in developing student’s professionalism and describes the role of ‘failure’ in drawing with its implications for the creative student as entrepreneur, holding as a core theme the development of ‘T-shaped’ thinking essential in negotiating uncertain creative futures (Leonard-Barton,1995, p.77). It will discuss the importance of collaboration and the evolution of a community of drawing practice alongside current ways of thinking about skills in art and design education and the resulting implications for pedagogies of professional practice.

    The paper proposes that arts education that engages with drawing as a means of embedding professional practice in the curriculum produces graduates who are actively engaged in their professional world as confident, entrepreneurial practitioners.

    Drawing and its role in art school professional practice

    PDF Document Logo  Download Stephen Felmingham's complete article here


    Biographical information

    Stephen Felmingham

    Stephen is an artist and educator currently researching for a practice-led PhD in drawing, place and the contemporary sublime at the University of Leeds whilst leading the new BA (Hons) programme in Painting, Drawing & Printmaking at Plymouth College of Art. He has lectured extensively in drawing and contemporary art practice on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across the UK including University College Falmouth, Norwich University College of the Arts and recently at Leeds College of Art, where he also led a Professional Practice module on the BA (Hons) Fine Art programme.

    Stephen Felmingham
    Lecturer
    Painting, Drawing & Printmaking at Plymouth College of Art
    e-mail: stephen@felmingham.net

top ^