Inner life and artistic education

In the Phaedo, Socrates is clear in delineating his intent and focus for artistic and philosophical inquiry. His concern is that we should orientate ourselves away from the material world, the lure of the senses, the body, and rather nurture an inner life and turn instead towards the soul. In March 2000 we had little option but to reorientate ourselves – this period of recent history was a reminder that our contemporary society is rich in its material relationships and comparably poor in accommodating and providing space and food for our inner life. Art schools in particular, this essay will argue, are very good at propagating and advancing the physicality’s of making yet give little if any attention to developing the inner life of artists. On this question the British artist and teacher Roger Ackling is clear when he states ‘if you work outside in nature, in what is called – the landscape – you have to work on the inside too, on the nature of yourself’ Comparably the American post minimalist Richard Tuttle states ‘ we have inner lives; inner lives are destroyed and replaced by outer lives’ I think we have forgotten that education is the creation of knowledge rather than just the delivery of education. In this essay I want to focus on how advancing an arts education based upon pointlessness, boredom, and repetition (amongst others) can be kindling for having faith in artistic work – the importance of an inner life, or soul, for artists. Art is ameliorative, in action.