Event overview
Centre for Arts and Learning Stories of Change with Dr John Johnston, founder of UCAL: Is Art Education relevant? 鈥楤etween a Rock and a Hard Place'
In this Centre for Arts and Learning 'Stories of Change' event, Dr John Johnston will explore issues-based art education (IBAE), and the various research methods employed by UCAL.
In these times of social and political polarization, specific issues such as migration and identity are highlighted to create division and tension. These issues are often brought to the forefront through the language of culture, which includes education, art, and symbolism which are used to form notions of a singular identity. The goal of such narratives is to create what social identity theorists call 'in and out' groups. This can be summarised as the in-group member identifying with the symbolic language of the dominant order, while the out-group is perceived as not belonging or as a threat to that order.
John Johnston's illustrated talk will explore how issues-based art education (IBAE), and the various research methods employed by United Nations Centre for Arts and Learning (UCAL) can be utilised to question such constructions, by engaging with symbols and languages of division. John will show examples of practice-based projects that offer a way out of such polarised narratives while also exposing the many challenges and set backs that he and his team have encountered.
John will also introduce the morphological concept of the 'artisteducator' to explicate the connection between art, education, and society. 鈥楤etween a Rock and Hard Place鈥� advocates for an educational paradigm shift away from self-centred systems of knowledge production toward meaning-centred learning, where individuals define their existence through their relationship to people, places, and the times they and we live through.
Biography
Dr. John Johnston is the inaugural UNESCO Chair in Issues-Based Arts Education based at ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands. He is the founder of the UNESCO Centre for Arts and Learning (UCAL).
The centre is grounded in applied research, and as such, the research team works directly in various site-specific contexts, drawing questions and methods from the people, places, and times of a given situation. However, as a UNESCO centre, UCAL is dedicated to forging intercultural dialogue using issues-based art to connect research groups in the global north with the global south and vice versa.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 9 Jun 2026 | 5:30pm - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
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