As the artist you’re at the bottom of the food chain and expected to do your magic in a system that is structurally f-cked– artist leaks respondent . @A-N Artist Information

Reading this on instagram made my heart sink and reflect on the individual’s journey through life, art school and into the art world. What does the student feel and think when reading this while studying inn art school? What motivates them to continue and not give up? How often do we assume students are lazy when in fact they are at school against all the odds? What role do we as teachers play along that journey? 

I was taken back to my own time struggling with PTSD at the Royal College of Art. At the end of each term I only had bits of orange peel cut into circles to show and no explanation for them except that it felt good and was comforting. Despite no outcome in sight, my personal tutor encouraged me to keep cutting if that felt right and not to worry about end product. She took me for a walk out of the environment into the fresh air and encouraged me to get counselling. Two years later I realised the deeply embedded meaning in what I had been doing with the orange peel. I was healing through my sense of touch, smell and sight of the orange peel- alchemy. My personal tutor shared with me the most valuable lesson in my life, to care for myself and to heal my own wound first. I will always be grateful to her, she was nothing short of a healer herself. 

It would’ve been very easy to tick or not, the boxes and fail me as a lazy student. How do we move forward healing a society without healing ourselves first? 

Social justice is a structure within a society built on the pillars of rights for all (gender, race, creed, LGBTQ+, disability) access, participation and equity. By having such measures in place, can move a society towards some form of justice in spite of individuals not aligning their hearts and minds to the values. Traditionally food, shelter and education have been considered essential needs. I would say that ‘quality’ should be inserted before each of these and that a spiritual or soul making dimension be added which would include free access to the more than human world or natural environment.

However, structures, policies and strategies alone cannot create a just society, therefore the role of education would be, not only providing information and knowledge but actually turn hearts and minds through active participation to seek wisdom. How do we do this if we are not in that place ourselves as policy makers and teachers? How do we find genuine sentiments in fake world?