Methodology
The School of Traditional Arts is one of the few places where research into the traditional arts as living, contemporary practice is pursued.
About our methodology
At the School, research into the traditional arts is undertaken through creative and reflective practice, including inspirational engagement with exemplary works of traditional art. Artists’ encounters with traditional art from the past, and their work with others who engage in making traditional art today, open new pathways for practice and illuminate the depth of aesthetic and spiritual experience.
Working in this way, using natural materials and traditional techniques, researchers come to see how traditional knowledge might further understanding of today’s challenges both in and beyond the context of the contemporary art world. Over time, they come to understand the potentialities of traditional art to prompt transformative experience, to convey wisdom, and to positively impact people’s lives and environment.
Thomas Merton, 'Contemplation in a World of Action'“Tradition is not passive submission to the obsessions of former generations, but a living assent to a current of uninterrupted vitality. What was once real, in other times and places, becomes real in us today. And its reality is not an official parade of externals. It is a living spirit marked by freedom and by certain originality. Fidelity to tradition does not mean the renunciation of all initiative, but a new initiative that is faithful to a certain spirit of freedom and of vision which demands to be incarnated in a new and unique situation.”
Understanding the traditional arts
Traditional artworks are material – made of stone, wood, plaster and pigments. They may stimulate important questions: about the connections between the past and present; about the relevance of our heritage; about what we want to preserve and hand on to future generations; about our part in the natural world; about the integrating role traditional arts can play in our well-being, spirituality, integrity and care for our planet.
Prompted by questions about techniques, materials, composition, contexts, atmospheres and interpretations, our artist researchers use practice to both explore and communicate what they come to understand and know through their enquiry.
While the artforms researched may have their roots in, or be inspired by, Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, or other traditional arts, while they might come from as far away as China or Australia, or as close as London, our students’ work reveals the subtle threads which connect the traditional arts across time and space allowing them to continue to captivate, inspire, and transform artists, as well as others who encounter them. With a global outlook, graduates continue to practice, teach, and contribute to the regeneration of the traditional arts. Their contributions to supporting and revitalising traditional arts in so many parts of the world are now being steadily recognised.
Our methodology
Our holistic approach, synthesising practical skills, reflection, knowledge and wisdom, strengthens artistic and personal growth and can be both outwardly and inwardly transformative.
