Project Development March 2003

In response to curriculum changes at University level, the department is currently revising its BA curriculum. The changes will be validated to be effective from the 2004/5 academic year. In view of this, some of the courses which were going to be revised as part of the GLAADH project are being held back and will be totally re-written. Involvement with GLAADH has been very timely, structuring the whole way the department is now thinking about the coming curriculum change. The new BA curriculum will be designed to embed cultural diversity within it, building progressively from level 1 to level 3. In the short-term, however, new lectures have been inserted into existing courses to broaden their scope. It is hoped that the emphasis placed on Asian subjects will encourage more Asian students to study Art History.

The current BA course already has a focus on South Asian art, architecture and design and this is being strengthened and extended. South Asian material has been introduced to some of the sessions in the level 1 introductory course. A course on Cultural Identities has also been revised and is up and running successfully. Thematic shifts include a focus on images and representations of Gandhi, and 'home' as a site of identity, with a new resource made available in Living Religions, a film made by Richard Fynes in Leicester. The level two Contemporary Crafts course has been revised to include the study of local Asian jewellery shops. Members of PRASADA are also contributing to this course and the Open University course book, Views of Difference: Different Views of Art (edited by Catherine King, 1999) has proved useful for both this course and another on 'Aspects of Indian Art and Design'

Many of the changes to existing courses have been built on extending relationships between the department and the local community. An excellent relationship has developed between the department and the museum, Belgrave Hall, which rests on a mutually beneficial relationship. The museum is about to embark on a project called CREATE which will provide a cultural resource for the Belgrave community, focusing on South Asian arts and crafts. In return for support from the department towards providing some teaching and outreach work, the museum is willing to open its collection of South Asian arts and crafts to students from the department. Postgraduate students are already working on the collection as part of their own research and a digitisation project centring on the textiles collection is also underway. The images from the museum will be combined with images from the PRASADA collection. 50 images have been digitised so far and the finished database should contain at least 300 images. By establishing new contacts within the university, Richard Fynes has also been able to find the technical equipment he needs for the digitisation and database project and re-direct money from purchasing this equipment to buying time from a professional digitiser. The database design will be based on the British Museum COMPASS model.

The Art History course also has a strong vocational element with student placements and the department would like to encourage more placements in museums that have non-European collections. Though the GLAADH project has been headed by Richard Fynes, most of the department, although not directly involved, welcome the project and are supportive of its aims. The Acting Head of Department is very enthusiastic and supportive of Richard Fynes' involvement with GLAADH, which has helped to cement GLAADH aims within the planned curriculum restructure. PRASADA is still semi-autonomous and regarded as a research centre, however, a number of PRASADA members are working to pull their research into teaching more. Progress has been steady and carefully considered which has extended the scope and impact of the project.

Already there have been external outcomes. Richard Fynes has been asked to talk about the GLAADH project and its relevance to Art and Design Colleges, at the London College of Fashion. The Living Religions film can be made available to the GLAADH community and parts of the image database should be available by the summer 2003.

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