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Description

The VADEA 2021 Conference – Peripheral Visions program offers visual arts and design educators from primary, secondary and tertiary sectors an opportunity to reinvigorate their pedagogy in relation to Visual Arts syllabus content, drawing from art practices that represent different voices, alternate approaches and possible futures.

‘Peripheral Visions’ interrogates art educational practice in relation to artists and agencies of the artworld who investigate the dynamic between diverse and resounding voices, instigate provocative action and make visible critical points of intersection, debate and exchange in our contemporary world.

We are delighted to announce that artist presenters include Abdul Abdullah, Julie Gough, Lauren Berkowitz and Justin Shoulder with a masterclass workshop by Abdul Abdullah. The visions and actions of these practitioners represent critical junctures that provide open spaces for powerful voices to emerge and challenge us as visual arts and design educators to reconfigure our thinking about accepted realities. Voices and visions from the artworld, inspired by the social and political agency of artists, manifest ways of perceiving meaning and relationships in our broader world outside our direct line of vision. As primary, secondary visual arts and tertiary educators we are offered the opportunity to engage students in understanding how art generates points of divergence, disrupts orthodoxy, questions traditional assumptions by challenging prevailing views and how to interpret diverse viewpoints through a critical lens.

The conference will also consider the current NESA Curriculum Reform project which is underway. As visual arts and design educators we are at a critical juncture and now is the time to collectively decide what should be the focus of visual arts and design education. The conference will provide an opportunity for educators to continue to advocate for a quality curriculum that builds on our strong record of supporting the academic foundation of the subject and excellence in student achievement in NSW.

In response to rapidly shifting requirements in relation to COVID-19, the 2021 conference will include an option for a limited number of conference delegates to attend in person in line with social distancing requirements or the option to stream the conference live online. Delegates attending the conference virtually will have a number of streamed and pre-recorded breakout sessions to choose from.