Towards an Academic Artist: Recognising Teachers & Learners as Performance Practitioners

At Leeds Metropolitan University the academic Performing Arts team has been intentionally comprised of practicing artists and performance makers that, as well as making work professionally, also cite their artistic practice within their teaching. Having moved on from a time when the struggling artist would just teach to supplement their income, this paper suggests the importance of recognising the value of the artist as a practitioner and educator. Can this be achieved by drawing no distinction between the processes and learning experiences of devising professional performance work, and the creative acts of pedagogy? With so many emergent performance makers and artists coming straight from our universities, it may be important to acknowledge the large quantity of contemporary performance work that is contextualised from an academic perspective. As the responsibility for current and future artists increasingly rests within the academy and the recognition of practice as research increases, this discussion reconsiders what it means to practice and teach performance work within our institutions.