Quaife, M., Hartshorne, I., 2018.

Teaching painting: An organisation

An original research collaboration between Dr. Magnus Quaife and Dr. Ian Hartshorne, critically exploring international developments in the teaching of painting - responding to feedback REF 2014 suggesting pedagogical research was lacking in the sector.
 
Our methodology is to create forums to develop dialogues in an on-going mutually supportive manner and address issues surrounding the teaching of painting; we have convened symposia, conferences, produced publications and delivered dissemination papers in Guangzhou, Dresden and Porto. This has formed significant and sustainable international collaborations and partnerships, which continue to be developed, where knowledge is concurrently and coherently shared. As such, it is the only sustained research of its kind in the world.
 
Research methodologies are practical and theoretical, intended for artists, lecturers, and cultural theorists and of benefit to students by outlining painting's current condition. This provides a wider cultural understanding of what painting is, of benefit to curators, galleries and museums, revealing what painting is confronting and achieving within the context of higher education.
 
The project offers shared platforms where the historical, pedagogical and shifting methods of teaching painting are addressed within and outwith educational institutions. Through dissemination this research presents significant perspectives; How are pedagogies and methodologies delivered, understood, adopted or rejected? What is the relationship of painting within wider art practices and studies in visual culture? How is painting explained within the context of a delimited heterogeneous backdrop? International shared insights have also emerged creating original unexpected fluid networks and commonalities between various institutional approaches (see slide 1 of 'insights').
 
The conferences, symposia, publications and partnerships currently and subsequently planned by Teaching Painting represents a declaration of our intention to contribute, share and shape the vitality of painting as an educationally rigorous and essential cultural force.