Welcome to "Studies in Kunstvakidiotie". Here, you can browse through the photographs, essays, drawings, audio and video clips. ‘Studies in kunstvakidiotie’ is the doctoral research of Mirjam van Tilburg at Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (ARIA). This is a study in arts education from within the arts. She tries to shift the dominant image of life-long-learning (LLL) and provide insight into the possibilities that this LLL space also provides to art teachers. By searching in this way, more and more became clear about life-long-learning of art teachers. Therefore, a linear cause-and-effect narrative did not seem to do justice to the subject matter. The term ‘studies’ in the title is sketchy — it also involves repetition and seeking connections and, above all, it is a derivative of studio and study.
Five essays form the markers within ‘Studies in Kunstvakidiotie’. Together, they construct a narrative. The essay ‘(onder)zoek in kunsteducatie’ describes practices and values that stem from Mirjam van Tilburg’s artistic practice: education. The motivation behind this research is that art teachers find LLL events to be limited. The essay ‘LLO als commoning practice’ discusses the possibilities of commoning practices. The examples: The New School Collective and studios are outlined herein. The studios are the experiment within this doctoral research. During the winter of 2020-2021, Mirjam van Tilburg worked with ten art teachers. The experiment of this doctoral project coincided with the Covid-19 crisis. Together they occupied artist studios in Tilburg and Rotterdam to de-automate and look at teaching practices.
The essays ‘Blik’ and ‘Tijd’ therefore propose two topics of conversation within LLL: the ‘aesthetic glance’ and the temporal experience of ‘interruption’. These essays question the efficient and productive order prevailing in the work environment and LLL of art teachers.
The essay ‘Herontdekking van Kunstvakidiotie’ is the story of a change in the craft of art teachers in the first Covid-19 crisis year. The term ‘kunstvakidiotie’ in the title cannot be directly translated into English because it is a compound word and may have specific connotations in the Dutch context. The essay describes how in these studios, art subject teachers had one foothold: artistic fervour.
