What do you want/need to gain from higher education?

08/05/2020

What do you want/need to gain from higher education?

I believe that my search for a course in creative arts started many years ago when I was on maternity leave with my now 11 year old daughter. I used art in various ways as I found myself, for the first time, without a daily routine for work or school etc. I found the various artistic experiments therapeutic, not only at this time but throughout my adult life. 

This developed into a passion over the years and, with the help of a local young parent programme, went into two part time creative leisure programmes, including textiles and the bronze arts awards with City and Guilds. During those years I had twice applied to attend a local college but found full time classroom based courses more intimidating and unconducive to my situation as a young mother. 

So I continued my passion for creativity as a hobby. 

Until, in the autumn of 2019, I walked past my local university’s art studio and saw an art student contentedly developing a piece of art in the Anglia Ruskin’s Art Studio. This reignited my determination to gain a qualification in a subject I have loved throughout my life. 

This led me to a search where I discovered the open college of creative arts, the OCA.

A distance learning course is ideal for me in my current stage of life as a mother of two children and with limited travelling options. The higher education aspect of the course will, I hope, allow me to prove to myself my capabilities and eventually open more pathways for my education in the creative arts. 

I feel I need to ‘start from scratch’ and build my knowledge of creative arts from the very basics. I need to develop my creative views and how I perceive forms of artworks. I am keen to develop an eye for art from an educated perspective.

I also hope to build the confidence to call myself a qualified artist, whereas I currently consider myself still a hobbyist. 

I have difficulty in some areas of using ICT but hope to improve my online presence, learning how to get the most out of using digital platforms and technology as an artist by learning the basics of ‘blogging’, and possibly even progress onto making my artwork into a viable business using digital technology. For example selling prints or sharing my journey through the degree.  

I also have several health issues that have restrained me in terms of doubt and mental stamina. I feel I need to use this course to demonstrate to myself  that I am capable and adequately supplied with skills to complete the course, along with the support from my tutor and peers.

I hope to become part of a community and share experiences with the students from the OCA online forums. 

In summary, I’d like to develop my abilities as a creative personality and build the self assurance to venture into new areas of creativity. I am eager to embark on the course having not ever gone into higher education before. I also hope that should I choose to go further into my creative education, I will have the options to progress into the next stages and continue my learning, perhaps even in my local university!