When Wenger initiated the concept of Communities of Practice in 1991, it did not include the possibility of social, collective, and communal learning and creativity in the Arts. The model was based around the collaborative learning of an apprentice and how an apprentice learns alongside colleagues and an ‘expert.’  

“If people learn together, the result is a community of practice.” (Omidvar & Kislov, 2014) 

Academia has also developed other models to explain collaborative learning such as swarm learning, distributed cognition, and participatory creativity. “Creativity is a distributed process of idea development that takes place over time and incorporates the contributions of a diverse network of actors, each of whom uniquely participate in the development of ideas in various ways” (Clapp, 2019). The idea is that the group is more ‘intelligent’ or ‘creative’ or ‘analytical’ than a solo person. 

What does this mean in the Visual Arts?

Two new Visual Arts Study Designs were implemented in 2023. Gone are Studio Arts and Art, replaced with Art Making and Exhibiting, and Art Creative Practice. Both Study Designs include the critique, a formalised method of social, collective, and communal feedback where the knowledgeability of the group gives substance for reflection and evaluation of the student’s creative practice.  

A VCE art critique can be considered a community of practice because the group of VCE artists come together to discuss, analyse, and evaluate each other’s artworks. The members of the community interact with each other, exchange ideas and opinions, and learn from each other’s perspectives. They share their insights, opinions, and knowledge about art, and in doing so, they collectively develop a deeper understanding of the visual language of the artwork including posing critical questions. 

In understanding this, the critique dovetails with the Harkness Model implemented within St Catherine’s Year 9 Critical Conversations Program with the Humanities. With the assistance of Mr Paul Gilby, Project Leader: Curriculum Innovation (Harkness Model) and Head of Humanities, I am excited to see that, with deep scaffolding and unpacking, the Art Critique and the Critical Conversations Program overlap.  

Why am I excited?  

Critical and insightful conversations about a student’s work are happening but not necessarily between the teachers and the student. What is evident is that the students have much insight into how art communicates through a visual language. My job is done. 

In the meanwhile, if you have a family member sitting Art Creative Practice starting to talk about the ‘crit,’ know that this critique is an example of contextualised social learning. Visual Communication Design students call it ‘the pitch.’  

Critical student conversations are also part of the Media study design. When making art and actively taking part in a crit or critique, students are ‘practising like an artist,’ ‘talking like an artist,’ and ‘thinking like an artist;’ because they are artists.