EDITORIAL

Learning from Artists
Learning from Art

JANET PATTERSON, GUEST EDITOR

This special issue is centered on women's experiences of the processes of learning about art and how to make it, of producing their personal voices and visions, of finding an audience, and of teaching others. While the authors comment in various ways on the opportunities and constraints they encountered in formal educational systems, they also offer important testimony about the powerful insights that emerge and the radical knowledge that we construct as we teach ourselves in the course of our own work.

Feminist artists (writers, sculptors, painters, graphic artists, musicians, architects, story tellers, film makers, dancers, actors, weavers, potters, and all the others) have used this radical knowledge, coupled with creative action, to confront social and economic discriminations based on race, class and sex within the established art systems. Over the past twenty years of the women's movement, they have produced witty and outrageous protests against bias and have forced changes in previously acceptable practices. Critics and researchers have built a large provocative body of feminist scholarship and created a new politically conscious critical discourse.

This expanding, exciting, juicy ferment is evident throughout this issue and provides a reservoir of strength for artists and non-artists alike. This strength is crucial. The article by Leona Gom explores the ongoing tension between the feminist poet and her critics and publishers; the Interview and Commentaries remind us that despite our achievements we are in a continuing struggle to dissolve discriminatory structures, practices and beliefs that still exist between societies, within societies and within ourselves.

Artists also introduce us to alternative methods of perceiving, speaking, doing, learning and knowing. Persimmon Blackbridge's sculptural installation Doing Time actively engages the viewer in a powerful collaborative re-visioning of institutional oppression; her article uses similar techniques to engage the reader. Wives' Tales show us the potential and authenticity of our mythic storytelling voice, affirming the importance of hearing each other's lives. Phyllis Serota captures the interplay between life experiences, self-direction and the fertile, ever-emerging unconscious. Judith Boèl examines the emotional release and resolution of conflict that can happen as we use our individual creativity.

This use of creativity and of learning techniques drawn from art practices is a cornerstone of popular education (see "Theatre for Education, WEdf Summer 1987). Designing and leading creativity workshops have taught me about the deep learning that comes when we who are not artists allow ourselves to engage in making art. Planning and organizing this issue has been an exciting process. I found it particularly rewarding to work with and learn from the women you will meet in these pages. The other members of the Editorial Board gave valuable support and advice. Together, we've created a new adventure: Reader, I invite you to join us!

Janet Patterson has degrees in social anthropology and has done extensive research and teaching in the area. She presently works in municipal social planning developing local cultural activities and services. She draws, paints, writes, reads, looks and listens.