Angela Clarke

Curriculum and pedagogy in undergraduate fine art can promote an approach to learning creativity that is more about being an artist than knowing about art. Lecturers can provide a road map
for developing particular dispositions, in relation to student ideas and perceptions, to foster personalised creativity. This requires that lecturers have an ability to harness the range of learning
approaches and interests that students bring to their studio learning environments. One way of doing this is to construct learning activities in ways that engage students’ multiple intelligences so they may acquire deeper understandings of their own creative processes. Fostering this kind of creative think tank is
artistry of an educational kind. In this article we explore such a creative think tank by examining a particular lecturer’s pedagogical approach. We discuss how and why this lecturer designs activities in a way that draws on multiple intelligences to stimulate learning and foster creativity. Using narratives, we analyse this particular curriculum through the lens of multiple intelligence theory and explore how the pedagogical
approach develops the whole person. We found that by attending to relationships and focusing on a plurality of intellect this particular curriculum and pedagogy promotes transformative
learning in students studying fine art.

In-betweenness is related to liminality, is intermediary, interstitial, transitional and hybrid. Our professional friendship, forged in an Australian university art school, has helped us recognise the in-betweenness of family and professional life and their influences upon one another. In-betweenness has been theorised in anthropology as a culturally recognised liminal state that occurs during rites of passage or transition. Focusing on liminal states facilitates an understanding of transversal movements between being mothers, academics and artists. We argue that privileging the in-between makes for a rich and creative life but this life comes at a cost within the hierarchical structures of our public and educational institutions. We share how we have mitigated this cost by developing collegial and personal connections that are particularly empowering for women. We have uncovered ways to simultaneously separate from the more rigid structures of groups to which we belong, inhabit ambiguous, disruptive and playful states and reintegrate into established socio-political structures with a renewed sense of purpose.