Suzy Tutchell (Associate Professor in Art Education, University of Reading) has recently been appointed as Convenor of the National Society for Education in Art and Design’s (NSEAD) new research group, called GATE – Gender, Art and Transformative Education.
GATE seeks to consider a gender sensitive, responsive and essentially transformative approach to rethink gender equity in art education. It will explore how to raise an active and critical consciousness to broaden a spectrum of possibilities for experienced, felt, embodied, performed, and conceptual gender-related art practices across all phases of education.
As a member of the NSEAD council, Suzy has been working closely with NSEAD to build this new action research group to address issues across educational phases. The working group recognised that Art and Design education, as a discipline, has the potential to be diverse, transformative, dynamic, and disruptive. Despite this, much art practice in schools, colleges and higher education institutions continue to reflect a white male canonised art history within a narrow nineteenth and twentieth century paradigm. The norms of curriculum, resources, attitudes, and assessment are often at odds with the freedom to explore, and deviate as is the character of contemporary art. This inevitably leads to the perpetuation of a patriarchy in relation to artists studied and an education system that repeats and replicates a gender imbalanced and binary artist approach.
GATE will meet early in 2023 to discuss, explore and learn from research. Its long-term aim is to publish examples of gender transformative approaches, practice and policies which place all learners as a compass point – at the centre of art education.
For those who are interested to learn more about GATE or would like to join this research group, please contact Suzy (s.tutchell@reading.ac.uk) directly.
To learn more about Suzy’s research, visit her profile page here. She tweets at @SuzyTutchell.
