BE OPEN: Teaching Performing Arts Online 26 October 2020 As universities everywhere partially open up their doors this autumn, they have to cope with many issues of the coming academic year, trying to reinvent the education process in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent restrictions. Many creative hands-on courses are struggling to come up with safe ways… Read more →
BE OPEN: Art Schools Embracing Technology 13 October 2020 Last year, one of the world’s most prestigious art schools, The Royal College of Art in London, announced plans to expand its curriculum in order to transform the accepted paradigm of an art and design university, by injecting key scientific disciplines into the mix of creative courses traditionally on offer. RCA’s new… Read more →
BE OPEN: Diversity in Architectural Education: Building Architecture of Tomorrow 21 September 2020 According to Sumita Singha, a practicing architect and academic who has worked in India, France, Spain and the UK, strangely enough, diversity and equality are ‘taboo’ words in architectural education. Considered to be liberal and creative, way above what is considered ‘political correctness’, most architects do not see the elephant… Read more →
BE OPEN: ‘Architecture is Not for You’: Elitism in Architectural Education 14 September 2020 Not long ago, writer and director of the Open City charity organization Phineas Harper wrote in his Twitter that the architecture profession has to face up to the fact that it has grown to be “more elitist than the most elite university in the world.” The assumption is not at… Read more →
BEOPEN: In Pursuit of Excellence: Critique in Design Education. Pt 2 31 July 2020 Another form of design critique used in studio format learning is intermediate group critiques that are similar in form to final reviews or "juries", yet are much more generative and positive, possessing the same coaching functions as individual critiques. Unlike juries, group crits are focused on advancing the work of… Read more →
BEOPEN: In Pursuit of Excellence: Critique in Design Education. Pt 1 24 July 2020 Critique – whether it is self-critique, peer review or expert tutoring – is an integral and one of the most valuable components of a formal art and design education. For first-year students, however, it can be one of the most difficult aspects of their design school experience. For both sides… Read more →
