A novel postscript by Gert Biesta

This is the last chapter in the publication Art, Arts and Pedagogy. At this point in the book, discussion of Gert Biesta’s paper and elaborations of many Deleuzian concepts, have been made by the authors. Now in the final chapter, Gert Biesta reflects on the book as a whole, through the analogy of visiting an art gallery.

Likening the act of reading the book chapters to observing a series of paintings at an art exhibition, Biesta observes how some paintings may appeal in different ways. He compares this looking, to how we might react to the chapters in this book, where recognition might invite a certain sense of joy, or raise our curiosity to go back and revisit the text as we do paintings in a gallery. After putting the case for accuracy in those ‘portraits’ that depict himself, Biesta comments on the ways in which the different concepts in the book are taken up by each author.

This is an absorbing, at times humourous, though scholarly account of the main arguments that Biesta presents, undertaken in an improvisatory style of writing, touching on art, dance, music, film and drama, that brings the book to a lively and audacious end.

Art, Artists and Pedagogy is intended for all those who work in arts education, from tertiary level to early years, from practising artists to teachers and lecturers in arts education. The book, available in paperback and electronic format, is published by Routledge.