Centre for Arts and Learning

A wonderful evening at the opening of ‘Dance Out’, @rwabristol . Paintings by CAL emeritus @paulsdash are shown alongside fine moves by @david_remfry_ra , @traceyeminstudio , Paula Rego, Gillian Wearing, @amy_dury , Denzil Forrester, @melaniemanchot and @zoefrancisspowage .

‘Plural Horizons’ were envisioned in Molly Pardoe’s PhD Art Practice and Learning viva exhibition at @ampgallery . @mollycpardoe ’s cohesive body of work explores transnationalism through painting. @mirandamatthews has supervised Molly, with @esthersayers , since 2020. Centre for Arts and Learning is delighted with Molly’s developments in practice research. @maartsandlearning students visited Molly’s exhibition to address questions about how and why artworks are curated for exhibition, on this atmospheric and fruitful occasion. #transnational #painting

Centre for Arts and Learning warmly invites you to Starting from the Middle: Institutional-Humans with Ohad Ben Shimon Date: 20 May 2026, 5.30-7pm, online. Link to register in our bio 🔗 About the event As part of the Centre for Arts and Learning Stories of Change Series (2025-26) Ohad Ben Shimon will be discussing ‘starting from the middle’ as an approach to cultural and social change. Starting from the middle is not only a methodological approach but an ethical responsibility attuned to caring for the world “from the middle” of a set of relations and resisting clear separations. It involves an “ethico-onto-epistem-ological” (Geerts 2016) relational bond of a kind. On an institutional level, starting from the middle means engaging with institutions and the communities they affect and are affected by from within, attuning to their rhythms, practices, and relational dynamics. In a gesture of what Ethan Kleinberg (2024) calls “temporal-anarchy,” Ohad Ben Shimon attunes to embodiment across different temporalities, and knowledge-intensive situations. In his presentation, Ohad will specifically attend to how bodies are affectively and materially oriented toward their institutional-human life in advance of, during, and after being artist-residents within the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts), an international art residency in Amsterdam, where Ohad was a guest resident for nine months in 2022. Drawing on studio-based practice during that time, and a series of interviews conducted with fifteen Rijksakademie alumni, Ohad Ben Shimon will articulate embodiment, not as something that “starts” once one enters an academic or cultural institution, but as something that is already in motion before admission, arrival, or inhabitation. Bio Ohad Ben Shimon is an artist, researcher based at University of Utrecht, and educator with a background in art, cognitive sciences, psychology, philosophy, cultural analysis, interdisciplinarity and international business education. @shimisunshine #change #narrative #art #education

The 2025-26 research theme ‘stories of change’ was addressed by Megan Lovett, Learning Manager at @bowarts and artist @esther_neslen , in the context of problem-posing the changes that happen in creative learning experiences, gathered at Bow Arts Trust and in Neslen’s range of participatory projects.   Megan Lovett said, ‘So many of the teachers who visit are actually frightened of the creative process, so having someone like Esther go in with some practical skills can enable them to be more confident in delivering art lessons…From a teacher perspective, you want this experience but then there come all the practicalities: We’ve created all this work and now how do we display it and evidence it?’. The ‘resistances’ of differences in school and gallery contexts were raised. ‘We’ve been invited to do something open and creative as artists but now we’re coming up against all of these resistances.’ Meg said that Bow Arts projects encourage, ‘Having a mindset when you can keep people creative and free without sticking to a rigid curriculum.’ Esther Neslen shared the changes and adaptations made in discoveries and difficulties to work through in projects with schools and community groups. Regarding the ‘Monstrous Assembly’ project in which large clay sculptures were made at the Epping Forest Visitors’ Centre in 2019, Esther said, ‘I wanted to get people with all different ideas and get them together.’ Esther Neslen talked about how projects with schools can introduce more diverse artists for culturally relevant learning referring to David Drake aka ‘Dave the Potter’. While he was enslaved in 19th century America, he made clay pots, and wrote his name and poems on the pots. Esther said, ‘It was illegal for slaves to read and especially to write. What he was doing was public and radical, and I wanted to demonstrate the powerful possibilities of literacy - of writing your name.’ Esther also relates to culturally relevant contemporary artists such Sylheti artist Rana Begum, who lives and works in London, when working with school students with Bangladeshi heritage in Tower Hamlets.

When @frankbowlingstudio visited @maartsandlearning this Spring we reflected on turning points in the life course of Bowling as an artist. Ben Bowling and Susi Sahmland said that, ‘The things that lead people to change maybe only observed as moments long after the act.’ ‘In New York in the 1960’s he saw light coming through the window onto his canvas that he thought looked like the map of South America, and this was a turning point in his career.’ Art also changes in the making. ‘Growing older has changed how he practices his work.. he needs help and that has changed how he paints.’ The group talked about significant changes in a person’s life, which could potentially be to do with people, illness, serendipity, personal identity, artistic identity, location or politics. When Ben and Susi asked Frank about his stories of change, Frank said the biggest change in his life and influence in his career was Clement Greenberg who said, ‘It’s flat’, abstract art is flat.

Centre for Arts and Learning invites you to the Goldsmiths book launch for Ecologies in Practice and Learning: Arts Interventions in the Earth Crisis on 25 February 5.30-7 (online). Contributors to the book will be present to introduce their chapters. The link to register is in our Bio 🔗 In this launch for Ecologies in Practice and Learning, the editor Dr Miranda Matthews and contributing authors will present the central motivations for the edited collection. Matthews will introduce authors focusing on: 1) Addressing climate injustice; 2) Practice research and arts activism in universities; 3) Eco-pedagogies in site-specific practice and collaboration; 4) Sustainable arts practice: Arts educators in museums, galleries and community spaces; 5) Artists and arts collectives: Taking action in the Earth Crisis; 6) Ecosophy and aesthetic imaginaries. This edited collection brings together arts educators, practice researchers, curators and artists to explore ecological approaches to learning, gathering awareness and assembling protest in times of Earth crisis. Each chapter contributes new understandings of different arts processes that have the potential for enabling lifelong and future-changing reparative interventions. Contributing authors are Andrew Amondson; Dennis Atkinson; Landing Bassene; Gabriele Budach; Sudip Chakroborthy; Kevin Davidson; Francis Gilbert; Graham Jeffery; Emese Hall; Penny Hay; Aminul Hoque; Erin Manning; Miranda Matthews; Ben McDonnell; Bridget McKenzie; Terri Newman; Molly Pardoe; Ben Parry; Henrietta Patience; Stephania Rovira Ochoa; Sharmila Samant; Trish Scott; Gohar Sharoyan; Jenn Steverson; Anna Stewart; Chris Turner; WochenKlausur; Juan Pablo Zamora Figueroa; Roberto Andrés Zamora Figueroa. Ecologies in Practice and Learning is in the Palgrave Studies in Educational Futures Series. @goldsmithseducation #ecologies #practiceresearch #artseducation

Stories of Change at @whitechapelgallery were situated in problem-posing the histories of and contemporary approaches to curating artworks, in ways that enable diverse participation. Whitechapel Gallery is celebrating its 125th year in 2026, as @goldsmithsuol celebrates its 120 years. Richard Martin talked about the gallery’s changing approaches, questioning how we might think of the history of the institution in relation to developments in art with the people of the local area. He asked us to reflect on ‘What is at stake in the story of change in East London?’ This question invited connection with views West of Whitechapel Gallery into the commerce of the city, and East to the market stalls of the local community. @lowrymoth delivered a workshop which immersed the @maal group in the @joy_gregory_studio and Candice Lin exhibitions. The group experienced Gregory’s work with the intermediary of ‘photo batik’, and Lin’s in free writing and drawing. Richard Martin and Kirsty Lowry support vibrant discursive and creative ways to explore learning connections.

Stories of Change’ at Young V&A connected with repositioning the access to museum spaces and collections for young people and their families. Alex Newson and Catherine Ritman-Smith thoughtfully connected with the Centre for Arts and Learning 2025-26 research theme and invited @maal students behind the scenes of the histories and contemporary approaches of @young.vam . Alex said: ‘The story of change is also a physical one - in the redesign of the space. That is the biggest story of change. It’s about how museums consider access to their spaces and their collections.’ Thinking about how to communicate the materialities of @young.vam museum collections to young children Alex said, ‘How do you tell a story about yellowness or about bumpiness?’ Catherine problem-posed curating for children: ‘How does materiality change? How do we access toys and play? Are we thinking about the child’s needs and wants?’ Through generations there’s a story in all of our families that will have changed over the years…The story of change is also a story of creative processes…Who can tell a story in a museum? What kinds of stories can be told in a museum?’ #participation #stories #change

@najiabagi spoke to MA Arts and Learning students about ‘Stories of Change’ in relation to participatory arts, and the international and hyper local communities of @themosaicrooms . Najia asked: ‘In a rigid world how can we be softer and more porous?’ Najia says that changes in creative learning happen ‘when people feel safe and grounded’. Mosaic Rooms are ‘Working with young people who are creatively curious and interested in imagining just futures’. Najia discussed the Play Lab: Luma project – meaning light, developed with artist Chahine Fellahi, which is inspired by the life and legacy of Dia Batal, and works with Arabic calligraphy and story telling. Another significant project is ‘Yalla let’s play’ – (Come on let’s play), that focuses on the liberating potential of play with visiting families. Mosaic Rooms are making, ‘A space for local, national and international exchanges’, and exploring the potential for co-designed sensory learning spaces: ‘How would schools sound if they were designed by children?’ #artsandlearning #change #stories #narrative

In Spring term 25-26 @maartsandlearning is connecting with a range of cultural organisations that are relating to @artsnlearning research theme ‘Stories of Change’. These images are from our workshop with @entelechyarts . Here is an extract from the Entelechy response to Stories of Change. Stories of change – buried or new - might emerge in neglected areas and in the space between us all, from a relational space. Particularly when relationality is between people whom society keeps separate, building a foundation of trust and mutuality. With this body of trust comes new thoughts, allowing us to think outside of our usual places, and perceive things that may have always been there but hidden in plain sight. Thereby seeds of change, sometimes so ordinary, incongruent, chaotic or quiet we may dismiss them, come from the ground up, from the grass roots, burgeoning from under the surface. In our practise this often-playful ordinariness of sharing stories, of being together, of connecting sometime beyond words, allows a resting of the body, attuning us all to a communal nervous system, releasing other perceptual possibilities. Being frivolous, playful, with no agenda, engaging our own sense of embodied presence and sensory literacy, creates a shift in our nervous systems, opening other ways of imagining and seeing. #artseducation #diversity #inclusion #change

Congratulations Class of 2025! It was lovely to see @louisa_j_clark @stokingg and @selene.heath walking across the stage at Graduation today! We clapped our hands off!! And 👏👏👏 to those who couldn’t make it to the ceremony. We are incredibly proud of all of you and everything you’ve achieved 🥳👩‍🎓🙌🏼🥂

Happy New Year! Ecologies in Practice and Learning: Arts Interventions in the Earth Crisis is now published! 🌍 Wishing you a joyful, creative and ecological 2026 Including contributors Andrew Amondson, Dennis Atkinson, Gabriele Budach, @kevincampbelldavidson , Sudip Chakroborthy, @spinozasgarden , @grahamje , @drpennyhay , Aminul Hoque, #Erin Manning, @bridget.mck , @bcjmcdonnell , Terri Newman, @mollycpardoe , Henrietta Patience, Ben Parry, Sharmila Samant, Trish Scott, Gohar Sharoyan, @geneva_jean_ , Anna Stewart, Chris Turner, @fen.earth Roberto Andrés Zamora Figueroa, #WochenKlausur and more. There’s a link in @artsnlearning bio to the publication. Book launches are happening soon! #ecologies #practiceresearch #Earthcrisis