I first encountered Issues Based Art Education when I was studying to be teacher at Goldsmiths College in London in 1993. During the induction phase of the course my tutors talked about an art department in a school in South East London that had developed a unique approach to art education described as Issues Based Art. That school was Crofton co-educational secondary comprehensive in the London borough of Lewisham.

Like many schools in Lewisham, Crofton brought together children and young people from all over the world, some of whom had arrived as refugee’s from various conflict zones. These young people had something to say not as therapy but as a statement and issues based art provided them with a voice.  In addition, local children were inspired by what they were seeing and explored the same issues from either a more personal perspective or universal.

My personal tutor at Goldsmiths, professor Dennis Atkinson, recognised that I was developing a form of engaged art that was implicitly positioned within the paradigm of democratic education. My previous works, mostly set in Northern Ireland, promoted the concept of ‘shared practice’ that is working with others to realise artistic work. This approach enabled new forms of knowledge and understandings to emerge through a coming together of ideas and reasoning between the artist and society. I now recognise that I was working in the fledgling field of what we now call ’Socially Engaged Art.’ Based on his understanding of my practice Atkinson suggested I do my main teaching practice at Crofton.

When I entered the the school I was met by various paintings, sculptures, large format black and white photographs and other mixed media works. The art provided a range of content that reflected the multicultural fabric of the school, yet, they had one thing in common. There was a conscious political intention in all of the works. From year seven to year thirteen – the art provided commentary intended to engage the viewer in a dialogue about the specific issue explored.

At a time when the British government had presented a national curriculum that separated knowledge from making, the head of department at Crofton, Martin Kennedy, had formed praxis between knowledge and understanding and making and doing.

He had consciously moved art education from its fascination with skills such as drawing or painting, to a critical pedagogy, focused on concepts, processes of thought, exploration and realisation.

The entanglement of ongoing analysis with production encouraged each individual to say something to the world or to themselves about the issues they explored. This included universal themes such as environment, war, conflict, social justice and human rights or more personal agendas like relationships, belonging and home.

In my view, Kennedy’s vision and consideration of issues based art education has played a major part in illustrating the realities of the pedagogical turn – a turn toward socially engaged art and an emphasis on arts practice as research.  

Issues based art offers a direct alternative to art schooling or to be more precise the schooling of art. The schooling of art fails to recognise the potentiality inherent in artistic thinking. A rhizomatic pathway that in its complexity asks us to address the complexity of life and the issues that shape our thoughts, identities and knowledge.

Issues based art is the foundation stone of the international Master Artist Educator (iMAE), introduced at ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands in 2016. iMAE aims to address  the challenge set by the Brazilian educator Paulo Friere when he asked: ‘who will educate the educators.’ As recent events highlight, now more than any other time in history we need significant and meaningful education and to deliver that we need significant and meaningful educators. Art education in the form of an issues based approach, must become the norm and as such, issues based art education should be the core of all learning.

To achieve this art itself must be defined as a phenomenon that compels us toward balanced works in celebration of all lif . This art is a living aesthetic where compassion, trust, care and service are core values. We need a new generation of artisteducators and a new generation of schools who will dedicate their intentions and work to the urgencies of our times such as sustainable development, social change and human rights.

Below are examples of some works made by pupils at Crofton and other schools I have worked with. Due to ethical considerations the works are not named.

JOHN JOHNSTON