Progressive learning environments for cultural development and exchange in South Africa

Abstract

Conventional static art exhibition practices hinder the potential for art to cultivate meaningful connections and transformative learning within adult communities. This is particularly relevant in South Africa as knowledge and cultural practices are expanding, yet these environments are not evolving at the same pace. This emphasises the growing need to adopt more progressive spatial strategies that foster engaged learning, collaboration and participation by adopting an edu-curation approach that aligns with the country’s ever-evolving diverse cultural, social, and educational needs. By analysing the literature, empirical evidence, and curatorial and teaching practices in art and cultural institutions and learning environments, this study aims to provide the spatial strategies that expand human-environmental interfaces to enable epistemic diversity and multiple intelligences towards cultural development and exchange in South Africa. The study is situated in a constructivist philosophical worldview and interpretative framework, where multiple realities and perspectives are valued equally in the construction of meaning. Qualitative research was conducted through participatory action research (PAR) sessions and arts-based research (ABR) activities. Postgraduate students and staff from the University of Pretoria (UP) Department of Architecture and Faculty of Education, as well as the Javett-UP Curatorial Team, were participants in this process, consequently serving as co-researchers in the study. During the ABR and PAR sessions, it was discovered that collaboration and co-creation are necessary for transformative learning and cultural development and exchange to occur amongst diverse audience members. The ABR activities revealed that using a diverse array of artistic mediums as a tool for self-expression serves as a powerful means of acquiring and conveying knowledge, thereby fostering epistemic diversity. Environments that foster these activities encourage collaboration, experimentation, and the exchange of ideas, ultimately supporting a richer, more creative, and inclusive way of knowing. The findings also revealed that transformative change begins at a human scale. Intervening with the immediate environment will impact external influences when viewed in an ecosystem of learning. This involves a synthesis between responsive and enabling top-down policies with evolving bottom-up perspectives. A shift is required in the consideration of people in art and cultural contexts - the reference to individuals and audience members should be replaced by collaborators and co-creators instead. This shift embraces their role as active participants in their learning environment which will allow them to make meaningful connections and contributions to their own lives and the people around them. Progressive spatial strategies should be adaptive and responsive to the changing needs of collaborators through means of spatial agency that enables them to adapt and shape their own learning experience. Spatial strategies should consider the intimacy and intentionality of settings that can accommodate multiple arts-based activities for collaborators to engage in skills and knowledge exchange. This indicates that conventional spatial practices should be challenged by refocusing on a human-centred approach that fosters co-creation and collaboration amongst multiple collaborators. New ways of thinking where perspectives and ways of spatial interaction could be transformed are through progressive approaches that necessitate change on a human scale. This reveals that small significant change equals big impact over time leading to cultural development and exchange in South Africa.