About
Overview
The Centre for Creative Explorations (CCE) is situated in the art department at Harris Girls' Academy East Dulwich, South London, and is an emerging space for creative activism.
The need for the CCE came about through two combining factors: first the educational climate and the shift in towards a more polarised and 'academic' focus, as driven by the then education secretary Michael Gove. The second factor was a practice research project which highlighted the power of the arts and creative research to support the empowerment of young people.
The educational climate
With the change of British Government in 2010 came a shift in the educational landscape and dramatic changes to the education system. The changes to the curriculum manifested in the removal of coursework components to focus on the end-of-course examinations. This was argued to be a more a ‘demanding, more fulfilling and more stretching’ curriculum (Gove, quoted in Adams: 2013).
Implications on art education
The implications of this revised English education system created dichotomies between ‘academic’ versus ‘non-academic’, and created the perception of some subjects as ‘soft’ versus those that are ‘hard’ (Gove: 2009, 2014; Morgan: 2016). This division of subjects informed what was seen as valuable in the current educational system. It constituted the basis for continued attacks on arts subjects; from Gove’s introduction of the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc, consisting of maths, English, science, languages and humanities), to damning statements made by the next education secretary Nicki Morgan, who suggested that taking an arts subject would limit future life (Morgan: 2016). These factors led to ten years of funding cuts across the arts. It is therefore no surprise that there has been a thirty-eight percent decline in arts GCSE entries and a twenty-nine percent decline in arts A’ Level entries between 2010 and 2019 (Cultural Learning Alliance: 2019; see also NSEAD: 2017, 2018). It is now a privilege to take an arts subject at higher education and not only, as Addison and Burgess argue, is this a ‘reactionary failure to acknowledge one hundred and fifty years of art education’ (2013: 1), it also completely ignores the growth of the creative industries and the seismic shift in human and non-human technological advancements (UNESCO: 2013; Deloitte: 2020). The creative industries influence very part of our day, from when we wake up in house design by architects, to how we navigate through various mapping devices to our social lives via social media, film, music, to when we go to bed in sheets designed by textile and product designers, not to mention the thousand other interactions. To put this in context,
The UK's creative industries contributed £115.9billion to the economy in 2019, according to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. This is a 43.6% increase since 2010 and means the sector makes up just under 6% of the economy as a whole. (Prospects: 2022)
Seeing the impact of Government led initiatives in the classroom, whilst being aware of the benefit of the creative industries as highlighted above, meant action was needed to encourage the next generation of creative people. The need to highlight the fundamental rights of every child to access art education (see article 13 in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child), as well as to promote the power of art to support transformation, both in terms of mental health and in terms of confidence and activism. All of these factors fed into the creation of the CCE.
Colonial heritage
Alongside the devaluing of the arts through the introduction of the EBacc has been the rise in conversations around the colonial heritage that is imbued in our curriculums. Although this did not start with the introduction of the Ebcacc, it did return the curriculum offer to what Nicholas Addison and Lesley Burgess (2013, 1) have argued is a replica of the 1866 Victorian curriculum, which ‘regresses to a set of subjects designed to fortify the British Empire’. Alongside this regression of subject offer was a more insidious and racialised focus where Eurocentric colonial narratives become more apparent. This was seen when Gove restricted subject matter to those that he felt ‘“celebrate[d] the distinguished role of these islands in the history of the world” and portray Britain as "a beacon of liberty for others to emulate"’ (Gove, cited in Higgins: 2011). This meant texts that dealt with empire or shared diverse heritage became optional units in the curriculum and that black and Asian British history was side-lined in mainstream education (Leach, Voce and Kirk: 2020).
The call to action - art education
As historian David Olusoga explains, ignoring our colonial histories results in ‘the whitewashing of British history’, which ‘amounts to a cultural blind spot about these chapters from our past’ (26). Consequently, when Gove (2009), argued for the right of every child to access their ‘cultural inheritance’, the problem was to whose cultural inheritance he was referring? This brings us directly into the realm of art education.
Araeen (2013, 107) states, ‘It is common knowledge that what is being taught as art history in Britain is racially constructed in favour of the white race and at the expense of those who are not’. This erasure of histories from our cultural narrative disempowers all of us by removing responsibility and subsequently affirms the colonial ideologies in these histories. This can be seen in our cultural institutions, the statues on our streets (Proctor: 2019; Frances-Press: 2018) and the artists in our curriculums (Dash: 2005).
A more specific example of this can be seen in the art trope of the female nude, where the presence of the white body is positioned in opposition to the absence of the black body. This history rooted in racist ideals through the overt sexualisation of the black female body as opposed to the purity of the white female body (Leeds Craig: 2006; Nead: 1992; Marsh: 2005). The broader colonial implications of the female nude also perpetuated gendered, sexist, ageist, ableist, heteronormative narratives that are also sedimented and through this complex history.
However, art education is also the home of activism. It is in the art classroom that we can call these histories to account through creative methods. Non verbal communication, although at odds with the current education climate, is key in addressing difficult issues, creative methods can reach beneath the learnt contrasts of society and pull forth the unknown. Art helps us to realise we don't always have to have the 'right' answer, we don't necessary have to work in neurotypical ways to appreciated the world around us, and actually it is in these moments of disruption where we are open to something other, something new, that alternative futures can be reimagined (Manning: 2013; Renold: 2018). That is the power of art.
The CCE
Pulling all of these histories together and challenge through art and creative research is at the heart of the aims of the CCE. Art, as a subject that has been used as tool to perpetuate colonial narratives, is also the tool through which we can challenge such histories. It is important in our education systems that we start with the problem and then sit within it, disrupting it from the inside. The question was how to do this? How to make sure any decolonial narrative that we take up are not simply a metaphorical cloak that can be thrown of at will (Tuck and Yang: 2012). How can we support students and educators from diverse backgrounds, including from white heritage as well as former British colonies, to feel empowered to question these histories together? To respond to this question, a decolonising process must shift the traditional dominating stance of the teacher as ‘imparter’ of knowledge (DfE: 2011) to a co-constituted relationship based in collaboration 'with'. It is what bell hooks (2003) would call a 'pedagogy of hope' and it is within this collaborative 'hopeful' space that the CCE comes alive, a space in which to learn, unlearn and relearn together.
The 5 aims of the CCE are to:
•To support the empowerment of young people to explore and question society
•To develop feminist creative research practices and methods that decolonize the curriculum
•To bring artists, academics, students and teachers together through collaborative research practice
•To engage with research that is socially or culturally relevant to the students of HGAED and the wider community
•To publish students research findings in innovative formats on the CCE
We are open to propositions from students, academics, creative practitioners, educators and anyone who is interested in questioning and exploring the world through creative research methods.
Clare Stanhope - Founder of the Centre for Creative Explorations
The Centre for Creative Explorations (CCE) is situated in the art department at Harris Girls' Academy East Dulwich, South London, and is an emerging space for creative activism.
The need for the CCE came about through two combining factors: first the educational climate and the shift in towards a more polarised and 'academic' focus, as driven by the then education secretary Michael Gove. The second factor was a practice research project which highlighted the power of the arts and creative research to support the empowerment of young people.
The educational climate
With the change of British Government in 2010 came a shift in the educational landscape and dramatic changes to the education system. The changes to the curriculum manifested in the removal of coursework components to focus on the end-of-course examinations. This was argued to be a more a ‘demanding, more fulfilling and more stretching’ curriculum (Gove, quoted in Adams: 2013).
Implications on art education
The implications of this revised English education system created dichotomies between ‘academic’ versus ‘non-academic’, and created the perception of some subjects as ‘soft’ versus those that are ‘hard’ (Gove: 2009, 2014; Morgan: 2016). This division of subjects informed what was seen as valuable in the current educational system. It constituted the basis for continued attacks on arts subjects; from Gove’s introduction of the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc, consisting of maths, English, science, languages and humanities), to damning statements made by the next education secretary Nicki Morgan, who suggested that taking an arts subject would limit future life (Morgan: 2016). These factors led to ten years of funding cuts across the arts. It is therefore no surprise that there has been a thirty-eight percent decline in arts GCSE entries and a twenty-nine percent decline in arts A’ Level entries between 2010 and 2019 (Cultural Learning Alliance: 2019; see also NSEAD: 2017, 2018). It is now a privilege to take an arts subject at higher education and not only, as Addison and Burgess argue, is this a ‘reactionary failure to acknowledge one hundred and fifty years of art education’ (2013: 1), it also completely ignores the growth of the creative industries and the seismic shift in human and non-human technological advancements (UNESCO: 2013; Deloitte: 2020). The creative industries influence very part of our day, from when we wake up in house design by architects, to how we navigate through various mapping devices to our social lives via social media, film, music, to when we go to bed in sheets designed by textile and product designers, not to mention the thousand other interactions. To put this in context,
The UK's creative industries contributed £115.9billion to the economy in 2019, according to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. This is a 43.6% increase since 2010 and means the sector makes up just under 6% of the economy as a whole. (Prospects: 2022)
Seeing the impact of Government led initiatives in the classroom, whilst being aware of the benefit of the creative industries as highlighted above, meant action was needed to encourage the next generation of creative people. The need to highlight the fundamental rights of every child to access art education (see article 13 in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child), as well as to promote the power of art to support transformation, both in terms of mental health and in terms of confidence and activism. All of these factors fed into the creation of the CCE.
Colonial heritage
Alongside the devaluing of the arts through the introduction of the EBacc has been the rise in conversations around the colonial heritage that is imbued in our curriculums. Although this did not start with the introduction of the Ebcacc, it did return the curriculum offer to what Nicholas Addison and Lesley Burgess (2013, 1) have argued is a replica of the 1866 Victorian curriculum, which ‘regresses to a set of subjects designed to fortify the British Empire’. Alongside this regression of subject offer was a more insidious and racialised focus where Eurocentric colonial narratives become more apparent. This was seen when Gove restricted subject matter to those that he felt ‘“celebrate[d] the distinguished role of these islands in the history of the world” and portray Britain as "a beacon of liberty for others to emulate"’ (Gove, cited in Higgins: 2011). This meant texts that dealt with empire or shared diverse heritage became optional units in the curriculum and that black and Asian British history was side-lined in mainstream education (Leach, Voce and Kirk: 2020).
The call to action - art education
As historian David Olusoga explains, ignoring our colonial histories results in ‘the whitewashing of British history’, which ‘amounts to a cultural blind spot about these chapters from our past’ (26). Consequently, when Gove (2009), argued for the right of every child to access their ‘cultural inheritance’, the problem was to whose cultural inheritance he was referring? This brings us directly into the realm of art education.
Araeen (2013, 107) states, ‘It is common knowledge that what is being taught as art history in Britain is racially constructed in favour of the white race and at the expense of those who are not’. This erasure of histories from our cultural narrative disempowers all of us by removing responsibility and subsequently affirms the colonial ideologies in these histories. This can be seen in our cultural institutions, the statues on our streets (Proctor: 2019; Frances-Press: 2018) and the artists in our curriculums (Dash: 2005).
A more specific example of this can be seen in the art trope of the female nude, where the presence of the white body is positioned in opposition to the absence of the black body. This history rooted in racist ideals through the overt sexualisation of the black female body as opposed to the purity of the white female body (Leeds Craig: 2006; Nead: 1992; Marsh: 2005). The broader colonial implications of the female nude also perpetuated gendered, sexist, ageist, ableist, heteronormative narratives that are also sedimented and through this complex history.
However, art education is also the home of activism. It is in the art classroom that we can call these histories to account through creative methods. Non verbal communication, although at odds with the current education climate, is key in addressing difficult issues, creative methods can reach beneath the learnt contrasts of society and pull forth the unknown. Art helps us to realise we don't always have to have the 'right' answer, we don't necessary have to work in neurotypical ways to appreciated the world around us, and actually it is in these moments of disruption where we are open to something other, something new, that alternative futures can be reimagined (Manning: 2013; Renold: 2018). That is the power of art.
The CCE
Pulling all of these histories together and challenge through art and creative research is at the heart of the aims of the CCE. Art, as a subject that has been used as tool to perpetuate colonial narratives, is also the tool through which we can challenge such histories. It is important in our education systems that we start with the problem and then sit within it, disrupting it from the inside. The question was how to do this? How to make sure any decolonial narrative that we take up are not simply a metaphorical cloak that can be thrown of at will (Tuck and Yang: 2012). How can we support students and educators from diverse backgrounds, including from white heritage as well as former British colonies, to feel empowered to question these histories together? To respond to this question, a decolonising process must shift the traditional dominating stance of the teacher as ‘imparter’ of knowledge (DfE: 2011) to a co-constituted relationship based in collaboration 'with'. It is what bell hooks (2003) would call a 'pedagogy of hope' and it is within this collaborative 'hopeful' space that the CCE comes alive, a space in which to learn, unlearn and relearn together.
The 5 aims of the CCE are to:
•To support the empowerment of young people to explore and question society
•To develop feminist creative research practices and methods that decolonize the curriculum
•To bring artists, academics, students and teachers together through collaborative research practice
•To engage with research that is socially or culturally relevant to the students of HGAED and the wider community
•To publish students research findings in innovative formats on the CCE
We are open to propositions from students, academics, creative practitioners, educators and anyone who is interested in questioning and exploring the world through creative research methods.
Clare Stanhope - Founder of the Centre for Creative Explorations
Bibliography - a reading around these ideas
Art: the power of the creative act
Manning, E. (2013) Always More Than One: Individuation’s Dance. Durham: Duke University Press.
Renold, E. (2018) ‘Feel what I feel’: making da(r)ta with teen girls for creative activisms on how sexual violence matters. Journal of Gender Studies. 27 (1), 1–19.
Education
Adams, R. (2013) Michael Gove unveils GCSE reforms. The Guardian. [Online] Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/11/michael-gove-gcse-reforms [Accessed: 9 August 2018].
Addison, N. and Burgess, L. (eds) (2013) Debates in Art and Design Education. New York: Routledge.
Atkinson, D. (2018) Art, Disobedience, and Ethics: The Adventure of Pedagogy. 1st ed. 2018 edition. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Freire, P. (1996) Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth, Penguin.
Gove, M. (2009) What is Education for? Speech to RSA 30th June. [Online]. Available from: https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/blogs/gove-speech-to-rsa.pdf[Accessed: 26 January 2019].
Gove, M. (2014) GCSE and A level reform. [Online]. 2014. GOV.UK. [Online] Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/gcse-and-a-level-reform[Accessed: 1 February 2019].
Morgan, N. (2016) Nicky Morgan speaks at launch of Your Life campaign, GOV.UK. [Online] Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-speaks-at-launch-of-your-life-campaign(Accessed: 17 February 2016).
UN (1990) Convention on the Rights of the Child. [Online] Available from: https://downloads.unicef.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/unicef-convention-rights-child-uncrc.pdf
Race
Ahmed, S. (2000) Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality. 1 edition. London ; New York: Routledge.
Mirza, H.S. (1992) Young, Female and Black. 1st edition. London ; New York, Routledge.
Mirza, H. S. and Meetoo, V. (2012) Respecting Difference: Race, faith and culture for teacher educators. 01 edition. London: Institute of Education.
Stanger, C. (2018) From Critical Education to An Embodied Pedagogy of Hope: Seeking a Liberatory Praxis with Black, Working Class Girls in the Neoliberal 16–19 College. Studies in Philosophy and Education. [Online] 37 (1), 47–63.
Art: the power of the creative act
Manning, E. (2013) Always More Than One: Individuation’s Dance. Durham: Duke University Press.
Renold, E. (2018) ‘Feel what I feel’: making da(r)ta with teen girls for creative activisms on how sexual violence matters. Journal of Gender Studies. 27 (1), 1–19.
Education
Adams, R. (2013) Michael Gove unveils GCSE reforms. The Guardian. [Online] Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/11/michael-gove-gcse-reforms [Accessed: 9 August 2018].
Addison, N. and Burgess, L. (eds) (2013) Debates in Art and Design Education. New York: Routledge.
Atkinson, D. (2018) Art, Disobedience, and Ethics: The Adventure of Pedagogy. 1st ed. 2018 edition. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Freire, P. (1996) Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth, Penguin.
Gove, M. (2009) What is Education for? Speech to RSA 30th June. [Online]. Available from: https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/blogs/gove-speech-to-rsa.pdf[Accessed: 26 January 2019].
Gove, M. (2014) GCSE and A level reform. [Online]. 2014. GOV.UK. [Online] Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/gcse-and-a-level-reform[Accessed: 1 February 2019].
Morgan, N. (2016) Nicky Morgan speaks at launch of Your Life campaign, GOV.UK. [Online] Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-speaks-at-launch-of-your-life-campaign(Accessed: 17 February 2016).
UN (1990) Convention on the Rights of the Child. [Online] Available from: https://downloads.unicef.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/unicef-convention-rights-child-uncrc.pdf
Race
Ahmed, S. (2000) Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality. 1 edition. London ; New York: Routledge.
Mirza, H.S. (1992) Young, Female and Black. 1st edition. London ; New York, Routledge.
Mirza, H. S. and Meetoo, V. (2012) Respecting Difference: Race, faith and culture for teacher educators. 01 edition. London: Institute of Education.
Stanger, C. (2018) From Critical Education to An Embodied Pedagogy of Hope: Seeking a Liberatory Praxis with Black, Working Class Girls in the Neoliberal 16–19 College. Studies in Philosophy and Education. [Online] 37 (1), 47–63.
