Building Learning Spaces

How do you build a space for learning? What is it that we normally associate with learning spaces, and how can they be challenged to enable ways to learn and teach differently?

This three-part series dissects our understanding of traditional learning spaces to propose how designing spaces of learning differently can lead to new ways of teaching and learning.

Part I

Beginning with the provocation of "the learning zoo", Part I features a panel of educators and artists who debate the increasing transparency of learning spaces in cultural institutions. Should the public have access to, or be able to look into, spaces of learning in galleries and museums? Responses by Anna Cutler (Director of Learning, Tate), Gemma Wright (Head of Education, Camden Arts Centre) and Gal Leshem (artist), and chaired by Freelands Foundation's Director, Henry Ward.

Part II

Andrew Brewerton, founding Chair of Governors of Plymouth College of Art (now Arts University Plymouth), talks through the process of creating a one-of-a-kind school – supporting students from reception through to Master's level. He explains how Plymouth College of Art was designed to enable learning that is intergenerational and student-led, with impacts that reverberate far beyond the walls of the school.

Part III

Co-founder Anna Colin introduces Open School East (OSE), an independent art school now based in Margate. Anna gives a brief history of OSE, discussing its establishment in response to the professionalisation of art education and the importance of fostering access through intergenerational and community-responsive study programmes.

This series of talks originally took place as part of OCCUPATION, a three-day symposium at Tate Exchange organised by Freelands Foundation in collaboration with the Institute of Education (IOE) and University College London (UCL) in 2017. OCCUPATION featured an installation of those undertaking the initial teacher education course (PGCE) in Art & Design, studying to become secondary school art teachers. Panel discussions, workshops and film screenings explored the way we understand spaces for learning.