Further information:

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The educational studio space is inherently hybrid, serving multiple purposes and formed through an accumulation of histories and ideas. The educational studio is:

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• A space of privacy, but also a space where students are observed by staff and peers

• A space where students have a sense of ownership, and can assert their developing identity, but it which is also temporarily ‘lent’ to the student and ‘wiped clean’ at the end of the academic year

• A space of potential rebellion or provocation, but also a space of assessment and institutional protocol

• A space which functions as a class room, but also makes reference to the mythical studios of practitioners such as Marcel Duchamp, or Francis Bacon

• A space where both work and identity are constructed

 

Whilst
 the professional fine art studio has been well theorized, the educational studio space is less so. It has a more complicated identity and one that is specific to each art school. Despite a seismic shift in where contemporary art occurs, its audiences and artists’ methods, the studio space is still a central part of developing students’ identities as artists, and crucially how they understand their discipline.

Studio in, Studio outside, is a research project looking at the histories, material make up, use, and identity of the educational studio space. The project included:

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• An observational walk around the art school to identify disciplinary vernaculars

• Students documenting ‘where they work’, not ‘what does your studio look like’, a small linguistic shift which revealed practices which the educational studio cannot accommodate

• The forming of a collection of photographs of professional studios from across fine art, graphic / product design, and craft – demonstrating historical and contemporary reference points for students  

• Looking for an equivalent of Francis Bacon’s material and time rich studio existing in the art school, and asking: why a space like this might not exist within the institution