March 11, 2020

Tuesday, March 10. I needed to double-up on MA teaching, what with having been away in Manchester last Tuesday. The overnight winds had created small mountains of shale on the Promenade. The tide was in and raged mildly against the sea wall. The pathway was punctuated with pools, mirroring the grey sky as it moved across the town:

However, Raine’s nails brought sunshine to the day. Having met my complement by lunchtime, thereafter I caught up on admin over sushi and met with several other postgraduates either in person or by Skype. In the evening, I listened again to the composition. It was clearer where improvements and compressions could be made. It is improving.

Wednesday, March 11. The University is drawing up contingency plans, should we need to lockdown in the period remaining to us this semester. Each module co-ordinator had to submit a list of alternative assessment and presentation arrangements for their courses … and pronto. Today was also the Postgraduate Study Fayre, with which I’d be thoroughly involved with from late morning. Thus, challenges, complexity, and busyness lay ahead. On the shelf over my desk I have a bottle of vitamin C and hand gel. A symbol of futile defiance, no doubt:

9.00 am: The first of two undergraduate dissertation tutorials. One student was at the end of their endeavour, the other, about to commence. 10.00 am: I set up the Module Evaluation Questionnaire for all my courses. 11.00 am: In readiness for a possible lockdown, I was tasked to invent alternative modes of assessing the Exhibition, Portfolio, and Vocational Practice modules. How on earth can you substitute for an exhibition module, meaningfully. My hope is that we’ll never have to use this particular ‘nuclear option’. 11.30m pm: My first inquirer after the MA schemes on offer at the School. 12.30 pm: I continued to work on the lock-down document over lunch. 1.30 pm: I was up-to-date with student references, finally.

2.00 pm: The start of the fayre proper. Increasingly inquirers represent a broad range of backgrounds. It’s not impossible to be accepted to an MA without and undergraduate degree, but it ought to be rare. The MA is about mastery, and not the rudiments of art education. Some applicants, by shear determination and resourcefulness, gain a near equivalence of experience by taking public courses in Art. Near enough for us to take a risk and offer them a place. 5.00 pm: Mission accomplished (as a result of excellent teamwork among the staff).

Some observations and principles derived from the afternoon’s engagements:

  • We want you to find your authentic voice by the close of the MA.
  • If you’re that good at what you do, then, you don’t need us.
  • Something inexplicable takes place within the postgraduate community. It cannot be either taught or bottled. Rather, the spirit arises from within and among.
  • The path is rarely a straight line.
  • 7 things that need to be right and aligned: the time, the need, the opportunity, the ability, the resources, and the vision.

Before heading for home, I looked in again on the School’s current exhibitions:

7.30 pm: I began with a little editing, updated the diary, and returned to the composition for the remainder of the evening.

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