Grasping the Nettle:
The Art of Lost Opportunity

                 Professor Tom Davies

Abstract 
​The Drawing Conference arranged for Her Majesties Inspectors (HMI: Art and Design), at the School of Art, Margaret Street, Birmingham in 2002 used the concept of ‘drawing’ to stimulate discussion on ART/DESIGN in the wider community. The content (illustrated presentations and linked practical workshops) presented to the assembled delegates (participants invited by HMI) served to contextualize theory and practice and facilitate participatory models appropriate across a broad age range. Art and Design educators need, it was posited, to be involved in the breadth of engagement both in mainstream (school/college/universities) and in the wealth of potential for community participation. Indeed, all the workshop activities available to delegates had the essential intention of aiding translation into school or community projects.

Additionally, delegates from the respective constituencies had the opportunity to partake in a digital network (platform) to extend the collaboration beyond the initial conference. Ours, it was argued, is not a subject option for the ‘less academic’ but an inspirational creative vehicle for ‘critical judgement’ and the sensitivities ​associated with practical, aesthetic, social, historical, emotional and media experimentation (knowledge and understanding).

Wholearth/communities

​

GRASPING THE NETTLE >>