NiTRO + Creative Matters

Perspectives on creative arts in higher education

Mythbusting: the real role and contribution of creative arts

Myths and stereotypes surround all disciplinary groups to some extent. Images of mad scientists in white lab coats destined for careers in shiny new corporate buildings owned by SPECTRE are acknowledged as cartoon fictions, as is the belief that starvation in an attic is essential training for a good artist.

By Dr Jenny Wilson

Myths and stereotypes surround all disciplinary groups to some extent. Images of mad scientists in white lab coats destined for careers in shiny new corporate buildings owned by SPECTRE are acknowledged as cartoon fictions, as is the belief that starvation in an attic is essential training for a good artist.  

However, other myths and stereotypes surrounding creative arts appear ingrained in public and, more worryingly, in government perception.

“A degree in creative arts as a passport to unemployment” is reprised with regular monotony in just about every graduate employment analysis. A recent media article analysing the latest from the UK Institute of Fiscal Studies [1] reports that “The most employed graduates are in medicine and related professions … while creative arts graduates have the lowest employment figures and earn about 15% less than the average.” [2]

At least they have the honesty to acknowledge that “These figures don’t include income through self-employment.” Given the nature of arts practice work, this should give us cause to question the accuracy of this analysis and the impact that such analyses can have. [3]

“Research in creative arts is not as rigorous as other disciplinary research” is another trope that gets a regular airing, perhaps most memorably by US academic Richard Mayer (2001), who exclaimed (presumably with horror) that: “There are those … who seriously propose that educational research should become non-scientific so that, for example, artistic productions would be considered to be educational research studies … the result would be to push our field into the abyss of relativism in which all opinions are equally valid.” (p. 30) [4]

George Bernard Shaw’s oft quoted claim that “He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches” has been applied by those inside and outside creative arts to distinguish practitioners from educators, and the view that “Creative arts research and study is for personal satisfaction and does not contribute to the national economy, innovation or society” is rumoured to be behind moves for the privatisation of liberal arts degrees.

In this edition of NiTRO our contributors seek to address some of these myths:

Max Schleser (Swinburne) dispels the idea that creative arts study offers limited career prospects for graduates

Mark Scholtes (USQ) and Beata Batorowicz (USQ) challenge the myth that creative arts research is not rigorous but argue that is situated in a system of beliefs unable to capture and reflect its particular processes

Nancy Mauro-Flude (RMIT) takes issue with the current situation for creative arts including the perception that practice based research is somehow new or novel

Kim Cunio (ANU) presents a compelling case for the essential role that creative arts continues to play in society. 

[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/714517/The_relative_labour_market-returns_to_different_degrees.pdf

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/aug/12/is-a-british-university-degree-really-worth-it-any-more

[3] see Ruth Bridgstock’s excellent article in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/you-want-fries-with-that-creative-careers-are-still-out-there-for-now-28314

[4] Mayer, R. E. (2001). Resisting the assault on science: The case for evidence-based reasoning in educational research. Educational Researcher, 30, 29-30.

 

More from this issue

More from this issue

Let’s hear it for double time? “theoriea cum praxis” Keeping the act of creation alive

Now most art & design programmes have been usurped into a graduate model there is impetus for academic institutions to quantify and rank creative enquiry through endorsing practice based research outputs. In many cases, universities that champion the modality of valuing of the practice based method do so as something innovative and pioneering … adopting this approach as novel is to ignore a millennia of practices and investigations that adopt a practice based research methodology and as such devalue the approach by presenting it as up-to-the-minute rather than a valid and time honoured technique.

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Practice-led Research and the Myth of Rigour

The process of determining creative works as rigorous productions of new knowledge is complex. As artists-academics, we assert that practice-led research is distinct from other disciplinary research, in the very form of rigour and evaluation processes in which these creative works require … We therefore, emphasise creative research as holding its own creative rigour, encompassing complex intersections of academy and industry.

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Still holding the mirror to society

I would like to explore the myth that creative artists cannot play a part in the major debates of our society. For years we have been writing, talking and presenting on what the creative arts are and how they can work in the university system … Although there is much more to do, we might be able to change course a little. I believe that we do not need to justify ourselves as much now and that we should instead address the pressing issues of our world to fulfil one of the historical roles of the creative artist,

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The best of times for emerging filmmakers, screen producers and creatives

With current trends and transformations towards an increasingly dynamic mediascape and disruptive innovations, there has never been a better time for Creative Arts research. As the new marketplace for immersive technologies and entertainment at the Marché du Film, Cannes XR demonstrates, graduates who have an understanding of how to apply their emerging media and screen production skills into creative concepts, will have a number of prospects in the job market internationally.

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