Abstract

This presentation outlines the insights gained from a year of collaborative projects carried out as part of a Higher Education Academy Art Media and Design Fellowship (UK). The projects required the participants to collaborate across divides – the staff-student divide, the disciplinary divide, and cultural and language divides. Because of the experimental nature of the projects a ‘leap of faith’ was required on behalf of all the participants and the results were often surprising and unexpected. ‘The Lincoln Studio’ was a collaborative project between fine art staff and students that explored the studio as an active element in the production of artworks rather than as a mere place. ‘Lincolnshire Landscape’ was a cross-disciplinary project that involved fine art, creative lens media and journalism students working together on a project where they explored the Lincolnshire countryside, which would be an unfamiliar environment for most of the participants. ‘Belonging’ was a collaborative project between two art and design departments at the University of Lincoln and the fine art department at the Escola de Belas Artes, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. The final project offered undergraduate students an opportunity to work with a member of academic staff on a joint research project that reflected a shared interest. The Deweyan philosophy of these projects emphasised a sharing of authority and responsibility between staff and students and a focus on the experience as a means of creating an enhanced learning environment. This presentation will explore the pedagogic insights drawn from the experience; looking at the students’ response immediately after the project and again several months later to assess the long term impact of these initiatives.