Reorganisation: from two art departments to one

From 1 August 2012, the academy will have two departments instead of three: the Department of Fine Art and the Department of Design. The current Dept of Fine Art and the Dept of Specialised Art will be merged to form the new Department of Fine Art.  The merger will have consequences for all areas of the academy's activities.

'Our organisation will be more aligned with today's international arts field,' says Paula Crabtree, chair of the board and rector of the academy. 

'Artists educated at the Department of Fine Art and at the Department of Specialised Art largely work in the same arts arena after completing their education, and they compete with each other for commissions and grants. That is part of the reason for the merger,' she explains.

The initiative for the merger comes from the academic staff, and work on the new model has been going on for two years. The board adopted the new departmental structure in November 2011.

Consequences for students: one BA Programme in Fine Art
With effect from the academic year 2012-2013, the academy will offer two BA programmes: the BA Programme in Design and the BA Programme in Fine Art. The latter is a synthesis of the two current bachelor's programmes in art.

In the first year of study, the new bachelor's programme will emphasise artistic breadth and basic training. The programme will gradually become more specialised over the three years it lasts.
'With this model, students can experiment with a number of different materials and techniques and develop critical reflection and conceptual thinking while engaging in in-depth study. The academy believes that this system will work,' Paula Crabtree explains. In the present system, specialisation has been required very early in the course of study.  

Since the academy established the bachelor's and master's programmes in 2003-2004, the two art departments at Bergen National Academy of the Arts have each been responsible for one bachelor's degree - in specialised art and fine art, respectively. Students at the Department of Specialised Art have specialised in either photography, printmaking, ceramics or textiles already in their first year.
When KHiB was established in 1996, the model that was chosen meant that studies and artistic research at the Department of Specialised Art were based on a materials-based approach to art, while the Department of Fine Art included two and three-dimensional art, installation, video, sound, electronic media and performance. Students in the bachelor's programme at the Department of Fine Art have focused on developing their own artistic practice. 

'The differences between the artistic practice in the two art departments are no longer so clear-cut,' says Paula Crabtree. 'In practice, several of the students and staff have been attached to both departments. The art field is constantly developing, and this reorganisation is an adaptation to that. It is now time to get to grips with the organisational aspects,' she says.

The admission of new students will be more systematic and simpler for both applicants and the admissions committees. Around 100 of the 680 applicants for the bachelor's programmes in art for the academic year 2011-2012 applied for both programmes. The two art departments competed for the same students.
There are two main groups of applicants for the current bachelor's programmes in art, and that will probably also be the case in relation to the new programme. All types of individual courses of study, from the very flexible to the highly specialised, will be catered for in the new programme. The positive aspects of the current model will be retained: there will still be flexibility and opportunities for specialisation. 'The academy wants to provide its students with what they need to practice their art in the best possible way after graduating,' Paula Crabtree says.

The academy has offered one master's programme in art since 2004. It has been a collaboration between the Department of Fine Art and the Department of Specialised Art. 'We will now incorporate the experience we have gained from this in the new bachelor's programme,' she says.

With a structure based on two departments, the resources at the academy, the workshops and the academic staff will be more accessible to students.

The new art department will have 179 students in all: 135 at bachelor level and 44 at master's level.

Education based on artistic research
The academy's strategy is that, in future, teaching will be more based on the artistic research and development that the academic staff are engaged in. This work will form the core of the programme 'I am convinced that the students who start on the new programme in autumn 2012 will find it interesting,' Paula Crabtree tells us.

Consequences for academic staff: robust environments for artistic research
The new art department will have a staff of around 35 under the leadership of a dean. Each member of staff will be attached to one of three groups for artistic research and teaching. The groups are responsible for tutoring and teaching a group of students. The groups will consist of staff with different expertise, so that the students have good access to diverse resources. 'In practice, we do this already,' Paula Crabtree says. 'Again, it's primarily a case of adapting the organisation to a new reality. Bigger academic environments will make the academy more robust and it will also facilitate collaboration across materials and artistic approaches,' she adds.

Consequences at the administrative level
The reorganisation of the art departments will also have consequences at the administrative level. 'The administrative level has been assigned more tasks in recent years, and the members of staff who have filled these functions have not had a natural place on the organisational chart. We are doing something about that now. Moreover, some tasks have changed so that their place in the organisation is no longer so natural. It will be an exciting year,' Crabtree concludes.