The education of artistic vision: A collaboration between the community and the Academy

This paper investigates an established collaborative working relationship between two people working in the arts discipline area. One works in a voluntary arts organisation providing professional development for teachers, whilst the other is an arts academic preparing pre-service teachers for a primary teaching career. Both participants bring a range of skills, expertise and experience to their working collaborative relationship resulting in opportunities to engage the school, university and wider community in the arts. Narrative inquiry methodology has been utilised in order to provide rich insights into the elements which have contributed to the ongoing success of the collaborative relationship. The paper also explores the current context facing universities the challenges encountered by the collaborators in a climate of increasing performativity and accountability. The findings of this paper may assist those seeking to pursue university–community collaborations and provide insights into the characteristics of the collaborative process.