Book Description

Sensations of Art-making: Triumphs, Torments and Risk-taking is an exhibition curated by Purnima Ruanglertbutr that documents the collection of works by professional artist-teachers, who are graduates of Melbourne University’s Master of Teaching (Secondary Art) program. The works in this show demand attention by illustrating with sensitivity the triumphs, torments and risk-taking inherent to professional artistic practice. Each of these artists is treading the difficult pathway of moving into the world of teaching while retaining their artist identity. For some, this transition into the classroom is still to come. For others they are one, two or even three years into lesson planning, staff meetings, sports days and report writing. Theirs is the reality of conflict between their art production and being a teacher - two seemingly incompatible worlds. Through participation in this exhibition, they are beginning to fashion a mechanism for keeping alive their passion for art, while also nurturing a career teaching art to the next generation. This exhibition catalogue documents the work of early-career visual art educators and insightful commentaries by the artist teachers themselves - these are artworks produced during those critical first years after teacher training. Some exhibits explicitly address the role of art making within the teaching process. Others purposefully avoid issues to do with the classroom by illustrating the artists’ ongoing development of a private professional practice. Either way, these are critical pieces of information in the elusive phenomenon of the ‘artist-teacher’.