Unleashing the Power of Creative Workshops

04 Dec 2023

Katie Mander - Unleashing the Power of Creative Workshops: Integrating Pedagogic Theory and Art Practice 

Author Biography:

Katie Mander is a Lecturer in Creative Education at the University for Creative Arts. Katie has a BA (Hons) and MA in Ceramics. This is something she enjoys outside of her teaching practice, specialising in slip cast porcelain. Katie’s career started in vintage clothing as a buyer for a large vintage wholesaler. She then moved to work for designer Wayne Hemingway leading a project archiving, photographing, and writing about Hemingway’s vast collection of 20^th Century popular culture memorabilia. This has fed a long passion for Katie’s research into subcultures of the 20^th Century. Prior to starting her role in Creative Education, since 2010, Katie worked as part of the Fashion Promotion and Imaging team at UCA Epsom as a Senior Lecturer.

Abstract:

Creative workshops can be powerful platforms for fostering creativity, critical thinking, and personal growth. By further combining pedagogic theory with art practice, this offers a unique space to explore, experiment, and discover new ways of engaging with knowledge. In this blog, I will delve into the significance of integrating theory and practice and reflect on the positive impact this can have. As ‘creatives’, as ‘educators’, we always strive to show our students how to make those ever-important connections between theory and practice. Why do we do what we do, and how can we support this with pedagogy?

I recently ran a creative workshop with PgCert students studying on the Creative Education course here at UCA. This workshop was intended to make sense of pedagogic theory, by using a reflective exercise of collaging to underpin knowledge. This exercise was adapted from Pat Francis’ book Inspiring Writing in Art and Design: Taking a Line for A Write’ (2013). This blog documents my response and reflections on this workshop below.

Blurring Disciplinary Boundaries:

Art has always been a profound medium for self-expression and communication. By incorporating pedagogic theory into the artistic process, this offers an all-inclusive approach to learning that engages students. Such workshops encourage individuals to explore their imaginations, allowing them to escape traditional boundaries and think in abstract and unconventional ways. This fosters a sense of freedom and ‘open-mindedness’, encouraging innovative shared experiences that build a sense of ‘belonging’ and ‘becoming’.  

Embedding theory through creative workshop practices breaks down traditional disciplinary barriers. It promotes interdisciplinary thinking, encouraging students to engage with diverse perspectives and theories, and merge different fields of knowledge. This blurring of boundaries fosters collaboration and allows for the exchange of ideas across disciplines. The result is a richer learning experience that creates space for new discoveries, creative breakthroughs, and the development of a well-rounded perspective.

Embarking on the challenge of facilitating this workshop, for me, was a blend of excitement and anticipation. The prospect of guiding the PgCert students through the realms of pedagogy, creativity, self-expression, and introspection was both thought provoking and daunting at the same time. As I introduced the workshop, my primary goal was to create a space where imagination could take whatever form it wanted. I asked students to come prepared with collaging tools. This could be anything they liked, anything relevant to their artistic discipline outside of the PgCert. The outcomes of the session would then be uploaded onto a Padlet page for students to see and share with each other.

Learning by ‘Doing’:

I asked students to start with a word or phrase that they could relate to a learning experience or theory from the course so far. This word would then become a line, a doodle, an extension of the word in non-letter form; whatever they wanted it to be. I asked them to close their eyes to do this and let the line become something from their reflective mind, drawing on knowledge, experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Once the students had finished their ‘line’ I asked them to begin to collage around this, over it, or incorporate it. This collage process was to be a response to the learning experience, or theory, but could evolve into whatever they wanted it to be – as long as it reflected their thoughts/feelings/understanding of the concepts. Once they had the space to do this, I asked the students to return to the initial word that was written and build a sentence on this. The concept of this is that the sentence could be developed upon into a body of writing, creating new meaning, new ideas and helping to underpin the concepts that they might have initially found tricky.

I chose collage, with its tactile nature and diverse elements, because it encouraged students to step outside their comfort zones, creating meaning through practice and reflecting on prior knowledge and experiences. The act of cutting, tearing, and pasting became a metaphor - a series of decisions and rearrangements that ultimately contributed to the composition of the personal journey. This kind of approach to creative workshops offers a hands-on approach to learning, emphasising Gibbs’ model of, ‘learning by doing’. Students are encouraged to actively engage with the learning process by creating artwork, sharing their experiences, and reflecting on their own learning journey and making meaning. This hands-on engagement facilitates a profound understanding of the subject matter; pedagogy. By combining theory with practice, students gain a deeper understanding of the concepts being explored, and the knowledge becomes applicable and relevant.

Becoming ‘Unstuck’:

As well as ‘learning by doing’, introducing collaging as a method to underpin meaning of theory can support student who find themselves ‘stuck’ in the liminal space, jarred with the concept that theory in art practices can sometimes create. Integrating creativity and pedagogy provides an opportunity for cultivating rich ideas. As Newton and Plummer (2009) note “the use of the creative arts as pedagogical strategy enables individuals to better understand themselves, [and] to stimulate thinking”. This can support moving forward from the liminality, and offering a new, irreversible understanding of the world.

Unfolding Creativity:

Students, initially tentative, soon found their voices through the visual language of collage. Reflecting on this experience, I realised that I was not just sharing practice; I was sharing a transformative process for both the students and me. The collage workshop had become a shared journey of exploration, self-discovery, and connection. It reaffirmed my belief in the transformative power of these workshops, the importance of creating spaces for uninhibited expression, and the profound impact that creative exploration can have on individuals and communities.

Creative workshops that integrate pedagogic theory and art practice empower individuals to become active creators rather than ‘passive recipients of knowledge’. Students gain the tools and skills to express their ideas visually, verbally, and conceptually. This empowerment is vital in fostering independent thinking, innovation, and confidence, and making those conceptual and theoretical connections that are often so challenging for practitioners to link.