In October 2000 I was invited by Christopher Lucas, instigator of Animarts and now its director, to participate in a day-long consultation seminar, supported by London Arts, about the profession of the arts educator. Some 40 of us - a mix of practitioners, representatives of arts organisations and education - met at LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre)'s Islington office. After over twenty years of working with artists and teachers I was eager to be part of any discussion which engaged with the very real issues of increasing the supply of artists properly equipped to work in education and community settings. I recognised too that this is a complex arena with many differing interpretations of what the notion of 'equipped' might be.
A subsequent record of the discussion quotes how one of the participants defined the work and role of an animateur. He said '... the most significant thing that can happen when an artist works as an animateur is the creation of an environment where people can enter into a creative dialogue or framework of arts-making. It requires research, practical application and some sort of outcome. The aim is to create as many entry points as possible which let in as many participants as possible, each bringing their own skills, life experience, curiosity, passion - and also a readiness to put themselves at risk by saying something unexpected, or simply being, in their own way, different. To get a group of people together like this, daring to be self-reflective, challenging, willing to share, makes a fundamental impact.' That was LIFT's Director of Education, Tony Fegan. For me it comes closer than any other definition I know to describing the complex layering of the profession of the artist in education. It also hints at the challenge that lies before us of finding ways to skill increasing numbers of people for this work.
The consultation seminar won the active support of LIFT and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Both organisations saw the need to define and gain recognition for the particular pedagogy of this area of arts practice and so they agreed to join, under Animarts' auspices, in a practical research initiative. In small-scale projects with teachers, facilitators and artists working together in classroom and community settings, the research team set out to explore what skills, knowledge and understanding is required for successful work as an animateur. This was also the spur for my involvement, as part-time coordinator, in the planning and running of the Animarts Action-Research Programme which evolved.
The animateur word itself is a difficult one (some prefer the term arts education practitioner, community artist or artist in education) but for the time being animateur is the most convenient single word which Animarts has decided to use. Our definition of an animateur is: 'a practising artist, in any art form, who uses her/his skills, talents and personality to enable others to compose, design, devise, create, perform or engage with works of art of any kind.'
Before going into further detail about the research, it is important to look at the context for arts education today.
Political context
Arts Education is presently undergoing something of a boom. To a degree this relates to the harnessing of creativity to many business and education agendas, to the financial benefit now of a growing number of artists.
But, much more significantly for arts professionals and their evolving practice, there is a widening acceptance that the arts have a crucial role to play in assisting communities to express their culture and values in meaningful ways. The very real outcome of this state of affairs is an increasing demand for artists to work in education and community contexts, and happily it seems that this situation is here to stay. In supporting high profile initiatives like Creative Partnerships the government is putting significant weight behind the drive to offer many more individuals the opportunity for active participation in arts practice.
In this context, Animarts' research is both relevant and timely. It has for some time been recognised that artists who wish to earn a living as animateurs and seek training in the necessary skills face a considerable challenge. Although many schools and community groups will have had at least some opportunity to work with an artist, incredibly there is no single recognised training route for artists aspiring to do this work. Animarts was set up in response to this need.
Animarts mission
Animarts' long-term mission is to enhance the professional standing of the artist in education and the community. It is Animarts' premise that this can only happen when there are adequate, appropriate, recognised training opportunities for the growing numbers of artists working in this field. This necessitates a culture of collaboration across training and arts sectors in order to increase the flow of information to arrive at a more even picture of existing training opportunities across the UK. Pooling information (across art forms and types of provision) would enable some collective analysis of what minimum standards and knowledge might be common to all animateurs regardless of specific art form areas.
Existing training opportunities - the current picture
Whilst in recent years there has been a relative increase in training and professional development opportunities for artists, such initiatives (many of them excellent models) are spread unevenly across the UK and they vary in format and composition. Metier (the arts training and development agency) is currently working with Learndirect to produce a single database of existing arts training opportunities. Whilst this is comprehensive at Higher and Further education levels, it is proving especially hard for them to get all of the community providers to list their training - and it does not include some of the excellent practice offered by, for example, some local education authority arts and education departments and arts and community organisations. The norm for many animateurs is to find training 'on the job', sometimes with no prior experience at all. Such work may arise from contact with an arts organisation or through a direct approach to a school or community group. This approach is random and can end up with negative experiences for all concerned.
Recent research commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council (England), the Arts Council of England and the Design Council identified four common barriers to the take-up of training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) by artists: time, money, lack of information and inaccessibility of provision.
Action research
The proposed Animarts Action Research Programme became the opportunity to look at issues surrounding the 'growth' of the profession of animateur in today's climate of increased cultural and arts-based interaction with diverse communities. Securing the wholehearted and committed support of two such experienced partner organisations as LIFT and GSMD was crucial to first raising the necessary funding (London Arts, The Baring Foundation, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, and The Potential Trust) and then to designing and recruiting for the year-long programme. It was also vital that our research was conducted by artists and teachers/facilitators together. Some 60 artists, teachers and facilitators applied to join the project and from the 24 candidates short-listed for interview, all of them of a high calibre, a final team of eleven was chosen representing a range of art forms and education/community settings.
Describing the territory for the animateur of the future - how can we measure the unmeasurable?
Now six months into the action-research programme, our team of artists and teachers have embarked on small-scale projects involving participants in schools and community settings in the London area.
The first phase of the research focused on analysing the role of the animateur. It was relatively straightforward to identify some of the well-recognised skills and knowledge which animateurs need, for example, those which relate to the organisational and management aspects of the freelance artist; knowledge of current education law and practice and the structures and management of schools; skills in self-promotion and advocacy; and of course specific artistic skills. However, there are of course many other qualities which are central to the creative practice of the animateur which are less easy to define such as those which relate to values, philosophy, imagination and interpretation.
We then moved on to look at how the success of the animateur can be measured in an education system where any pedagogical approach needs to give an account of its impact on learning. If we make claims for the arts' contribution to participants' imaginative, expressive, intellectual or emotional development, how can we assess what this is and when it is happening? Indeed, can we define and assess creative development? Can we, and indeed should we be arguing for alternative ways of measuring success without compromising the imagination, curiosity, and spirit of adventure, which are at the heart of the practice of the artist? Can we measure the unmeasurable?
These and other questions are challenging and some of the answers to them lie in the nature of the partnership between artist and teacher or facilitator. The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) in a recent study of effective schools partnerships cited three factors as key influences on their success: the support and enthusiasm of staff; the support of the schools' senior management teams; and the efforts of the teacher co-ordinator. It is worth looking closely at the way particularly the latter role works beyond organisational issues. I suggest that success comes when the teacher/artist partnership is based on a mutual understanding of the distinct and equally valuable contribution of both teacher/facilitator and animateur to the partnership. My own experience as a teacher and arts facilitator tells me this is best arrived at by the teacher/facilitator when s/he participates herself in creative endeavour with the artist; and by the artist when s/he has spent some time in the teacher/facilitators' working environment, whether in a school or community context, before engaging with participants. Such understanding deepens when there has been some discussion of motivation and philosophy of both artist and teacher and where vital questions about approaches to learning are at least aired before the partnership encounters the students.
Our research is not yet finished but a powerful common feature is emerging from the projects. When teacher and artist model successful and complementary relationships, this has a significant impact on student confidence and collaboration and consequently on the quality of learning. Such a relationship also has a powerful effect on the practice of the participating teacher. Such conclusions may seem obvious, but the fact that this approach is the exception rather than the rule, is evidence of the need to define it more precisely. A central line of enquiry in our research has now become: What do artist and teacher need to know and do to work in a relationship of creative parity - where ideas are developed together, where the skills of artist and teacher are pooled and become a joint resource?
Our four case studies examine this approach looking at the impact and the legacy for teacher, arts partners, teaching colleagues, artists and participants. Such an approach has further implications for the definition of the profession and the training of artists. Collaboration of this kind requires deep reflection, sharing knowledge, expertise and experience warts and all. This is risky, demanding, challenging and rewarding. It takes more time, is more expensive, it has implications in terms of 'pastoral' welfare of all involved and it demands a flexibility and openness of all partners. It will also require us to re-think how we measure and assess our performance.
Animarts is an 'unincorporated Trust'. It has a board of four trustees, a 'facilitating team' of four (mostly unpaid), a research mentor and eleven artists and teachers commissioned as action-research participants. Animarts will publish its findings in the Spring. There will then follow a period of consultation with artists, educators and training providers as to what vision for training and professional development are appropriate for the Animateur of the future.
For further information contact Anna Ledgard artsed@anna.demon.co.uk or Christopher Lucas chris.lucas@animarts.org.uk