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Outdoor Learning – Gallery Event – Art displays


Tuesday 6th March 2018

The third year Outdoor students on the Outdoor Image module all presented their artwork and portfolios from a year of deep thinking and philosophising. The Gallery Event is the culmination of their learning journey guided by Clive Palmer who claims, amongst many things, “that education should be memorable, not forgettable”. What the students presented, and the way they presented it was professional and memorable for very positive reasons in [Outdoor] Education. The topics were as varied as the mediums used to create the artworks, for example, from our dependence on social media, devilish artificial intelligence, plastic poisoning in the oceans to poetry and plays that celebrate the joy of humanity. Social culture and aging and gender issues, animal rights and human rights, the freedom of the environment and the importance of the Outdoors for our very being. There were short stories, sculptures, speeches, creations in metal, paper-Mache, wood and clay, it was all on display to enjoy. Having gone public with their learning, i.e. shared the items and the learning behind them, the evidence will now be graded which I am sure will make a strong contribution to their final degree outcomes. However, grades will fade with time, but hopefully the memory of freedom to think and to create and express their personal beliefs, as a valid part of their education, will remain vivid in their memory for a very long time.
A book titled ‘Arts-based education in Outdoor Learning’ (forthcoming) will help to promote this style of teaching and learning in the outdoors, draft chapters from which were used to guide these students in this year’s module.
Thank you to all who attended the event.

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