Printmaking and the Rhetoric of the ‘Open Curriculum’

Print Research Network

Colleagues have already discussed printmaking within the context of an established muti-disciplinary art school culture through which the student determines a choice of medium appropriate to the direction of their individual practice (1).

This open curriculum (2) ethos has served as the cornerstone of Academy pedagogy within fine art since the recommendations of Coldstream Committee in the 1960’s and 70’s. Perhaps now however, it is vulnerable to hijack by an ideology within Academy culture, that is largely antipathetic towards print media, and indeed any media involving process or craft. The resultant disenfranchisement of print from the core curriculum provides an expedient for the demolition of resources under the guise of financial ‘efficiencies’.

It is essential, if we are to maintain the practise and spirit of the open curriculum, that the student is empowered with a choice of media from a range of disciplines, in order to make genuinely informed work. As a quid pro quo, we as print practitioners and academics must aim to possess the ground of new developments and to explore the practical and theoretical implications of such research. Solipsism does print no favours in what is already an unforgiving environment.

A well-resourced print workshop provides an enormous range of image making possibilities that may be applied to a range of contexts. Print media, far from being anachronistic or outmoded is well placed to make a vital contribution to a pluralistic curriculum. Wise management within art education must ensure the continuance of this spectrum of provision if the rhetoric of open curriculum is to be manifested in real student experience.

Nicholas Devison
October 2, 2007


(1) See Timo Lehtonen’s Printmaking, who said anything about Printmaking, posted 25 September on this site.
(2) Jeremy Mulvey has discussed this ethos in detail in his article Art of Freedom http://www.hero.ac.uk/uk/inside_he/archives/2006/art_of_freedom.cfm
An extract of this piece will also posted on this site.