BEAR: active listening, art pedagogy and the safeguarding of difference as a way of working with diversity

ABSTRACT BEAR (Base for Experiment, Art and, Research) is a Bachelor of Fine Arts programme established in 2013 and housed in ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem. In the Netherlands, the programme distinguishes itself, amongst other features, for its commitment to the Socratic method that underlines BEAR’s pedagogical vision. In this paper, I propose how certain characteristics of the Socratic method highlight blind spots and challenge normalised values in aspects of art pedagogy, the contemporary field of art, and by extension, broader societal attitudes. In particular, this paper argues that active listening, a key feature of the particular strand of Socratic method that we practise at BEAR, undermines the continued emphasis on individual creativity, and offers in its place a relational structure of collective participation in artistic practice and knowledge production. Moreover, I propose that active listening can be the site in which diversity contributes to what is being shared and produced in a learning context, creating a space for different positions, traditions and embodied knowledge to emerge and enrich the curricula of art pedagogy in specific contexts.