Studio Space Workshop 2nd year Critical Fine Art Practice, University of Brighton

Making Space to Create.

Findings from the CETL in Creativity at the University of Brighton emphasise the role of clear, open and flexible spaces in facilitating student centred learning, in particular strategies that involve working with groups and creative thinking. The centre has a remit to make an impact on creative learning across the university and the bulk of their work takes place either in the centre itself or in supporting specific teacher initiated projects. There have also been instances of centre staff making minor interventions and the following discusses a workshop run to help Fine Art students make better use of their shared studio space.

On the whole, second year students on the BA Critical Fine Art Practice were disenchanted with their studio space. They were not coming in very often, the majority were not using it to make work and the atmosphere was uninspiring and undynamic. There was a lot of furniture and miscellaneous stuff in the room but little evidence of any work being produced. Students could not always distinguish between the rubbish and pieces of work in progress. According to the students the open plan space, which is part of a room shared by third years, had to serve as a studio, seminar room and social space. This caused problems - work had been damaged by a lecturer during a joint seminar and it was difficult for anyone who wanted to carry on working when the other activities were taking place. It also meant the layout and amount of furniture kept changing, at one point just before the workshop we counted 34 chairs for a student cohort of 17. There were institutional factors they did not understand, for instance, why the waste bins appeared and disappeared, why wood was being stored at the back of the room and why there was no internet access. The second year tutor thought there was an issue about students finding it a problem to locate their practice. Where did they belong? Possibly as a default strategy, without any lead from the teaching staff, most students seemed to think critical fine art practice was limited to digital and lens based media.

After a session exploring the rooms in the Centre for Creativity, students began to reflect on particular features of a working environment and reassess their studio in a more positive light. There was the start of an impetus to change things. Although there were institutional issues that we could not address, we knew we could offer a session that would identify some of the emotions underlying the students’ behaviour and clarify how the studio or their use of it needed to change. Centre staff visited the studio, talked to students and devised a workshop in response. Our aim was to help them envisage how the studio could support them in what they wanted to do on their degree, why it wasn’t doing it at the moment and what actions they could take to remedy that.

We planned a combination of exploratory collage, small group work, large group feedback and action planning. Although we anticipated some reluctance about collage, we saw it as a dynamic method to elicit thoughts and feelings and hoped that students would not have used it as a tool for reflection before. The action planning was intended to be specific, i.e. to name what, who, when and how much, rather than just identify broad aims. Conscious of the limits of our intervention we still hoped that the students would end up feeling more empowered and motivated to make the studio serve their needs whilst on their degree course.

Angela Rogers and Steve Kilgallon May 2009

Studio Space Workshop 2nd year Critical Fine Art Practice, University of Brighton

Conversations with students in the week before the workshop made it clear they wanted to see some changes and take action during the session; they had discussed the problem enough. Building on findings from the Centre for Creativity, we decided to give them a new experience of the studio space by starting the session with an, albeit small, clear, open and flexible area in which to work. Our role was to trigger students into action, provide a space in which to reflect and offer initial strategies to help them improve their studio space.

Angela Rogers and Steve Kilgallon May 2009

Studio Space Workshop 2nd year Critical Fine Art Practice, University of Brighton

First Impressions

Angela Rogers and Steve Kilgallon May 2009

Studio Space Workshop 2nd year Critical Fine Art Practice, University of Brighton

All the furniture was shifted to clear a space to think and discuss

Angela Rogers and Steve Kilgallon May 2009

Studio Space Workshop 2nd year Critical Fine Art Practice, University of Brighton

We asked students how they felt about their studio ...

Angela Rogers and Steve Kilgallon May 2009

Studio Space Workshop 2nd year Critical Fine Art Practice, University of Brighton

What some of the problems were ...

Angela Rogers and Steve Kilgallon May 2009

Studio Space Workshop 2nd year Critical Fine Art Practice, University of Brighton

What they did not want in the space ...

How could the studio work well for them ...

Angela Rogers and Steve Kilgallon May 2009

Studio Space Workshop 2nd year Critical Fine Art Practice, University of Brighton

We left them rearranging the furniture

The students took up the challenge straightaway. Rubbish was collected, furniture sorted and stacked and a workshop space made in the centre of the studio. The action planning was simplified to a list of tasks that pairs of students volunteered to take on e.g. making inquiries about bringing in an internet link from the computer room next and storing the wooden for degree show panelling elsewhere. At the end they were deciding how many chairs they really needed and were beginning to rearrange the furniture. Overall the group was motivated and energetic and there was a sense of community and commitment.

The initial feedback from their tutor was very positive: ‘First of all, thank you to both of you for the work you did with the second years. It completely transformed their attitude to their studio and they have been coming in, talking a lot round the table and using the studio - as a studio! Work has gone up on the walls and there is a much better sense of it being their space. There are other consequences too concerning the other year groups which it would be good to talk through with them and with myself sometime.’ The central table area was important in discussing and planning the second year exhibition. For the first time students felt a home in their own studio. The workshop galvanised the students into taking positive action on ideas they already had about issues that were within their control. Previously because students had not demonstrated a strong sense of ownership lecturers had treated it as a flexible space and made use of it. Space is always contested in art and design environments. As students became clear and adamant that it was their studio the attitudes of lecturers began to shift, for example seminars are now held in a different room. There were however ramifications. Some students began to feel territorial and protective over the improved space and there were tensions with third year

Angela Rogers and Steve Kilgallon May 2009

Studio Space Workshop 2nd year Critical Fine Art Practice, University of Brighton

students. On reflection the tutor said she would have made the whole room the subject of the workshop and included the 3rd year students in order to come to some agreements about the whole space. Exhibitions have so far prevented us from reflecting on the workshop with students although their comments to their tutor have been enthusiastic. We will however, visit the studio and follow up at the start of their third year. We believe that this experience raises important questions about the capacity of higher education institutions to support open and flexible spaces for creative practice and the ability of undergraduates who have recently left school to fully realise the benefits of such spaces.

Angela Rogers and Steve Kilgallon May 2009