This thesis explores the historical and contemporary practices of cultural engagement and management at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). It considers the history of art at CERN, and the role of the artists who have engaged with the organisation. Furthermore, it traces CERN’s history from the beginning of the organisation in 1954 to the contemporary art programme Arts@CERN, including the artist-in-residency competition Collide@CERN (both initiated in 2011). Approaching the topic from an interdisciplinary angle, the thesis utilises art history, science history, critical studies of branding and public relations, science communication and various theoretical disciplines in order to understand why selected artists are being invited to collaborate with CERN today. My original contribution to knowledge is a case study showing the institutional nature of SciArt (an art genre that combines art and science) at CERN, connecting this to the institutional use of art and artists as public relations.

This qualitative research, with a narrative inquiry approach, focuses on the Black African sector of our community and explores how Black African students access, enter and progress through HE Art and Design and what facilitates this progress. It also questions what limiting barriers are visible in the art and design educational journeys of the participants in the study and to what extent these barriers have had an impact on the participants’ educational journeys. As a result, this study has included both students and graduates who studied art and design at Higher Education (HE) as well those who considered studying art and design at HE but chose not to. Within this research I will define ‘Black African’ as all those who would situate their heritage as being sub-Saharan African as opposed to Caribbean. This study has analysed a range of narratives given by 14 participants of Black African heritage in regards to their experiences of access and entry to and progression in HE Art and Design. This is a small scale research project in which the focus is on depth of understanding and the production of rich data with thick descriptions. This research does not look to generalise to all Black African students, but to provide theoretical insight into the experiences of a small group of this population Research on Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) HE art and design students overall and specifically Black African HE art and design students in the UK in terms of access, entry, progression, and overall HE experience is currently lacking in the field (Okon 2005), therefore this specific group is considered in order to bring it out of its anonymity within the field of HE Art and Design.

The first idea of "Art Education" came to my mind when I wrote M.A. thesis entitled:“ The Role of Art in Training and Teaching Children 6-11”, Ten years ago. I was eager to enhance my study to new planning methods of Art universities. The objective of this idea was to open up our cultural institutions to the wider community, to promote learning and to extend the reach of new technologies. So, as a PhD student I liked to work on the idea of values and the hope for development. I left all my past behind to enliven my ambition in the way of innovative art. In the world of communication and digital, I was looking for a way to connect human‟s intellectual values and global digital. I tried to perceive the reality of human‟s nature despite the extraordinary progress in computer and its components. Therefore, it is now appropriate to move our attention to what we might do as teachers in higher education to evaluate the quality of our own work, with the key aim of improving the quality of students learning. Because, a teacher has a unique role, requiring the integration of teaching skills and capability to take an active role in curriculum support, design and implementation. I had so many interviews with many digital artists around the world which made me to question myself: Where am I standing now? What do I intend my artwork to impart? As the global communication has brought artist to communicate globally they intend to suggest the new thinking and new form of art. It is no longer art for art but art for communication and conveys a meaning to observers. Regarding to Oliver Wedell who interprets the best of a book he found, can also be a good expression for me in art: "The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts." Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), American physician and writer. (Wendell Holmes). This thesis has set out to provide a review of progress in the British universities post 60s. There was historical evidence of this tendency going back into the 19th century, when colleges founded to serve the educational needs of the growing industrial cities turned into the technological universities. The intensity of the certain of new system in England was occurred after World War II. Following post war concern about the need for technical education, and deciding to establish some colleges linked to industry. Indeed, the evaluation of new industry and demanding for reformation, become one of the most important goals in England in those days. Academic atmosphere became institutionalised on policy for technical education in 1950s and 1960s. Appendix 1 contains the main intention to explore the progressive movement of higher education in England. However, It was not the aim to provide a comprehensive theory of the history of education but, in short, I have narrowed my attention to the history of art universities in England since 18th century up to now. So, appendix II, concentrates on the creation of the new system after the 60s and have explored how and why the process of improvement expanded during that period. Chapter 1 with the subject "Digital Art and Iranian Education" has addressed approaches to teaching for creativity in art and illustrates how they can provide rich opportunities for students to discover experience and develop their skills in creative area. The questions here: How can creativity be communicated through teaching? Do we have a specific language for creativity in art? How can we explain the importance of creativity in art? How can teachers make the teaching process itself more creative? would be an overview of teaching and learning process. As it can be an important factor for teachers to know and demonstrate “when”, “where” and “which” language can be matched by creative subject material to avoid creative problem. Actually, creative problem solving depends on using the right tools such as, text, graphics, picture, video, links, searching, random scanning, backtracking, multiple windows, with programmable access and control of other resources such as, spreadsheets, databases, CAD, CD-ROMs, video discs, audio discs, tricks, procedures or methods of analysis. In some cases new tools and methods of analysis must be developed from scratch by the inventor before a problem can be solved and in other cases special tools and procedures must be developed to take the final critical step of enabling successful commercial applications after a university education. Recent technological advances in the arts have created the possibility of new ways of teaching and learning. Identifying successful strategies and techniques for enabling universities to advance is a critical step towards making these goals a reality. This chapter analyse the following conceptual approaches as key issues: Restructuring curriculum and policy in Iranian arts faculties, promoting faculty development and students‟ learning in the context of global standards. More specific issues included: Is there a need for a standard model to deliver university goals? How can we adapt the curriculum? What do we want from creativity and how can we be more creative? Chapter 2 discusses the quality of teaching and learning, resulting in improvements throughout undergraduate education. Therefore, Iranian educational context needs to be considered. I have argued that to increase faculty members‟ effectiveness, the existing competitive, individualistic college structure needs to be transformed to provide a collaborative and innovative environment where the use of computers could emerge as a new practice area. Chapter 3 represents that creative use of computers in digital art is important in learning and teaching. This chapter gives an account of the author‟s experiences in digital printmaking, not just as pieces of art work, but also to develop teaching and learning strategies for Iranian art universities. Chapter 4 states that the development of a professional digital art practice has been an essential task faced by many creative professionals today. The application of digital technologies discussed in this chapter is: What is needed in order to identify a dynamic practice and critical debate relative to educational contexts? How can we visualize the practice and theory of digitalisation? In particular, what is the nature of the collaboration that explores new models of working and practice relevant to the discovery of new methods in future? Indeed, the intersection between digital paintings, the physical body, and multimedia in collaboration with music and video art is one that this chapter discusses as a challenging teaching exemplar in forming learning values. The result promotes a new fine art context that breaks the crossing between the arts. Chapter 5 reveals the world of modern physics and the reality of our mind and our conscious self. The study of quantum physics is the further aim to develop artists‟ consciousness and inner expression for the concept of body energy and interactivity in chapter 6. Chapter 6 considers the hidden values to learn how to focus well on mind throughout the physical body. The collaborative digital art practice has analysed the intellectual activity and produced an interactive visual arts. The study of human being fused my imagination to see and express body in a new form of art as my final project. Chapter 7 examines and explores the idea of using digital art as a form of multimedia project and the opportunity of developing new techniques in performance. These explorations need to develop new tools to facilitate the emerging concept of the higher spatial dimensions, human body and their relationship between art and technology. The intention of this chapter, as a closing chapter, was to suggest a developing a programme, as a short experiential artwork to model a virtual form of the body and to explore the nature of consciousness in the world of the imagination.

Constructing a Reflective Site is a fine art practice-based research project, which considers the relationship between art practice and teaching. It does this through a critical examination of reflection in art, in pedagogy and in philosophy. Contemporary art forms, like relational practice, discursive practice and artists appropriating education as their medium, raise new questions regarding the mechanisms by which practice informs or can inform teaching within Higher Education. Reflection can be one way to elucidate and question this interrelationship towards an understanding of how notions of knowledge can be seen to operate across practice and teaching. This research is undertaken from within a dual position on practice: art practice and teaching as practice. The concept of practice-based research has been adopted from emerging positions in relation to artistic practice and artistic research, and this position has also been employed in the study of teaching as practice. This is thus a dual study, which has employed an indisciplinary approach towards an examination of subject specificity in fine art teaching. Notions of site have been used both as an artistic position in relation to the research, and as a theoretical framework, drawing on Miwon Kwon’s genealogy of site-specific practice. The research sought to explore the relationship between reflection in teaching and learning and reflection within an artistic practice and has found that, in epistemological, cognitive, social and historical terms, reflection does not necessarily constitute the same experience across pedagogy and art practice. This has consequences both for art students when asked to critically reflect on their work and also for developing the field of artistic research and concepts of artistic knowledge. Furthermore, these differences highlight the need to continually examine contemporary arts practices for models contributing to subject specific pedagogies in fine art, in order to keep the relationship between the subject and the academy critical and productive.

The structure of an education system and its curricula reflects the influence of a specific paradigm. Since the onset of colonial rule and apartheid in South Africa about everything in the South African society, including the education system and curricular issues in particular, have been shaped in accordance with the macro paradigm: the modern Western paradigm. The emergence of a new paradigm: the postmodern paradigm, created the possibility of a new order of thinking which influenced all societal domains and aspects and propelled the society into the new millennium. Since 1994 a new approach forms the corner stone of all the new South African policy documents on education. It is for this reason that the issue of an arts education curriculum is investigated from a paradigmatic point of view with reference to the modern, the postmodern and the African paradigms. Various components, roles and dynamics of educational curricula cast in the modern paradigm framework are compared with characteristics of their counterparts in the postmodern paradigm framework, and how they can influence the design of curricula, especially arts education. The contribution of an African paradigmatic perspective is accounted for. A new approach to curriculum development based on the ideals of a learner-centred education approach, an outcomes-based education approach and the integration of subjects into specific learning areas has officially been adopted as the approach for transforming education and curricular issues, resulting in the present Curriculum 2005. Within the context of the Arts and Culture learning area of this Curriculum, the study concentrates on and emphasises the integration of the four art forms of dance, drama, music and visual art in order to overcome the legacy of fragmentation of a curriculum. The study culminates in a proposed integrated arts education outline for curriculum development that defines the rationale and vision for South African arts education. The researcher contends that there is sufficient scope for arts education to contribute its unique aesthetic values to the new national curriculum in South Africa and that integration of these art forms does not in any way diminish the unique character of each. / Didactics / D. Ed. (Didactics)

The structure of an education system and its curricula reflects the influence of a specific paradigm. Since the onset of colonial rule and apartheid in South Africa about everything in the South African society, including the education system and curricular issues in particular, have been shaped in accordance with the macro paradigm: the modern Western paradigm. The emergence of a new paradigm: the postmodern paradigm, created the possibility of a new order of thinking which influenced all societal domains and aspects and propelled the society into the new millennium. Since 1994 a new approach forms the corner stone of all the new South African policy documents on education. It is for this reason that the issue of an arts education curriculum is investigated from a paradigmatic point of view with reference to the modern, the postmodern and the African paradigms. Various components, roles and dynamics of educational curricula cast in the modern paradigm framework are compared with characteristics of their counterparts in the postmodern paradigm framework, and how they can influence the design of curricula, especially arts education. The contribution of an African paradigmatic perspective is accounted for. A new approach to curriculum development based on the ideals of a learner-centred education approach, an outcomes-based education approach and the integration of subjects into specific learning areas has officially been adopted as the approach for transforming education and curricular issues, resulting in the present Curriculum 2005. Within the context of the Arts and Culture learning area of this Curriculum, the study concentrates on and emphasises the integration of the four art forms of dance, drama, music and visual art in order to overcome the legacy of fragmentation of a curriculum. The study culminates in a proposed integrated arts education outline for curriculum development that defines the rationale and vision for South African arts education. The researcher contends that there is sufficient scope for arts education to contribute its unique aesthetic values to the new national curriculum in South Africa and that integration of these art forms does not in any way diminish the unique character of each. / Didactics / D. Ed. (Didactics)