ONE WORD - ONE IDENTITY

We have brought the term artist directly into contact with the term educator. This is a deliberate action that asks society to reconfigure its view of the relationship between art and education. We statethat art is education and education is art – in fact. Based on Joseph Beuysconcept of ‘social sculpture’ we describe iMAE as a living artwork. This redefinition challenges the comment that ‘Those who do art do and those whodon’t teach.’ This popular comment coined by the British philosopher George Bernhard Shaw,  demeans those who chose to become an educator as second class citizens when it comes to the art world.  As noted in the previous paragraph there has been a significant ‘turn’ in the arts and education toward a more dynamic understanding of the relationship between both entities. This challenges conventional notions of education and of art and recognizes that the artist isno longer confined to a specific profile as presented in art history, and thatthe teacher is free to think and act like an artist through their pedagogicalwork. This is known as the pedagogical turn. Clare Bishop states; “Thestraitjacket of efficiency and conformity that accompanies authoritarian modelsof education seems to beg for playful, interrogative, and autonomous opposition. Art is just one way to release this grip” (Bishop, 2007, p. 89).Therefore the pedagogical turn is seen as a move toward the openness andpossibility that art education can provide. But this can only happen if theteacher / educator is open to such potentialities. iMAE was established tobridge the gap between art and education that is why we promote the concept ofthe artisteducator – One word that compels art teachers to reconsider theiridentity and see their education work as an artwork.