Reservoir of Knowledge: The Art Archive as a Site of Teaching and Learning
An Online Session for Art Educators in Nepal
by Dr. T.Shanaathanan
Department of Fine Arts, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Material conditions, artistic approaches, aesthetic preferences, theoretical frameworks and socio-spatial politics of contemporary art practices have forced art pedagogy to rethink its role, relevance and methodologies. Education itself is undergoing a major shift, and rather than being centered around teachers, it is increasingly centered around students. In this context, archives gain new momentum in day-to-day teaching and learning activities in the art field. In this session, Dr. T. Shanaathanan explores the possibilities of visual and textual archive materials as methods and materials for art education.
Dr. T. Shanaathanan is a visual artist based in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Jaffna. He is the co-founder of the Sri Lankan Archive for Contemporary Art, Architecture and Design, Jaffna, and a member of the Sri Lanka Art Council and the Advisory Board for School Curriculum on Art, National Institute of Education, Sri Lanka. He was a key partner in a previous iteration of this project when the Mobile Library traveled to Sri Lanka in 2013 in partnership with Raking Leaves.