Abstract
Higher education can function as an important marker of seriousness in fields characterized by diffuse professional standards. Using the case of a fine arts institute, the article outlines the role of higher education in promoting the interconnection of a professional and individual subjectivity; being an artist is not merely something one does but something one is. By primarily examining interview material, it explores how an ideal position of individual self-reliance relates to the alumni of the institute. Some respondents were not “in sync” with this position and needed to seek out other resources in order to construct themselves as professional artists. However, they seldom rejected the kind of subjectivity promoted by their education, but rather renegotiated it as part of the uncertainty of their chosen field.Keywords: arts professionals, artistic education, self-reliance, discursive repertoire
Highlights
Higher education can function as an important marker of seriousness in fields characterized by diffuse professional standards
Drawing from material containing retrospective interviews with art alumni, the article asks: What kind of subjectivity related to being a professional artist do these norms help construct, and how do art students themselves engage in these kinds of norms? What happens if they find they do not fit into any normative or desired position? Through exploring these questions, the article highlights how professional subjectivity can be constructed at a particular site
If we conceive of professionalism as having a work-based subjectivity that is committed to certain values and norms, we are made aware of the ambivalence towards the professional role in the arts world, as it has historical and institutional roots
Summary
In the 16th and 17th century, art works were understood to represent immutable truth, morality and beauty (Scuilly, 2007). The students are expected to individually lead the process of creating their own work, typically assessed at an exhibition in their final year This “laissez-faire mentality” of arts institutes is understood to rest on the romantic concept that creative talent cannot be taught Discourses are understood to create “instructions” for those identifying with certain subject positions, such as that of the artist, making it difficult to behave in different ways and still be considered, by others, to belong to this position (Winter Jørgensen & Phillips, 2000; Staunæs, 2003) This is not to say that individuals have no power over their identity process. When individuals are “in sync” with the discursively constituted appropriate subject position, they are analysed as untroubled (Staunæs, 2003, p. 106)
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