Embodying the Other: Pedagogic and Performative Strategies Used in 'The Art of the Life-Model Course', 2002-2007

The Art of the Life-Model ran as a community arts 'drop-in' at Leeds Art Gallery from 2002 - 2008. It offered members of the public an opportunity to explore the gallery's collections and exhibitions through mixed-arts activity combining drama, life-drawing, art history, 3-D making, discussion and performance. The Art of the Life-Model was unique in its focus on the history, practice and politics of life-modelling and took a theatre approach to the arena of life-drawing and also the space of the gallery. It offered learning space for people of all backgrounds, abilities and ages, and was unusual in its combination of theory and practice at community level. The report presents findings by Nina Kane who developed the course from her ongoing research into the life-model as performer and the life-drawing space as a space for theatre. It is written from research undertaken whilst the course ran through the Leeds College of Art, and was commissioned by the Leeds College of Art Research Department through the Adult & Community Education Team in 2006. The Art of the Life-Model brought 1,000 students through the doors of the gallery in the 2002-2008 period. When the course lost funding from Leeds City Council in 2008, it ran subsequently as a theatre and Gallery Education project under Cast-Off Drama becoming known as Modelworks until October 2012. See www.castoffdrama.blogspot.com for more on this. This report was completed in October 2007, and was presented as a public research seminar at the Leeds College of Art & Design on the 31st January 2008. Copies of the report are held at the Leeds College of Art Libraries and at Leeds Art Gallery Education.