Ms Veronica BAXTER
baxterv@ukzn.ac.za
Senior Lecturer, Drama Studies
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Ms Baxter is an academic and researcher in Drama and Performance Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Her research interests are Applied Theatre/Drama, and Theatre Anthropology (or performance studies).
She is the convenor of the biennial Dramatic Learning Spaces – a South African Research Conference, which has run since 2004. She is a former national President of the Southern African Association of Youth theatre (SAADYT), and member of the South African Society for Theatre Research and the International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR/FIRT). She attempts to build communication between African practitioners of Applied Theatre. Ms Baxter also directs theatre and performs as a singer.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Arts education is a vexing term across the world it seems – on the one hand implying education in the arts and on the other, education through the arts. Implicit in both is the function of art to reflect upon and interpret its world. Whichever of these two strands one chooses to emphasise, what is clear is that arts education is under-resourced and under-valued, as are the professions of educator and artist.
What is valued is consumer culture – billions of dollars worth of mass entertainment that serves largely to induce passivity in nations, and promote a neo-liberal political agenda. This entertainment industry is evaluated by its commercial success rather than its aesthetics and social enquiry, and by the antics of ‘celebrities’ rather than the skill and integrity of its artists. This global entertainment industry has had a profound impact on the local diversity, heritage, education and independent critical thought.
In this climate, arts education has been pressed into service, sometimes as panacea to, or distraction from socio-political problems deeply rooted in the past, inequity and oppression. The challenge for arts education is to secure the place for art in arts education, to safeguard critical reflection and celebrate diversity in the arts
Veronia Baxter女士
她為南非KwnZulu-Natal大學戲劇與表演藝術研究的學者。曾任南非全國青年劇場協會主席。她也是一位劇場導演及歌唱家。
左右為難的局面
藝術教育一詞很難解 – 一方面是藝術的教育，另外又是通過藝術去教育。不過，不管是哪個說法，藝術教育都是資源不足、備受忽略。而受看重的億萬元娛樂文化行業對本土文化的多元性、文化傳統和教育都有很大衝擊。
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