1960-talets Sverige präglades av expansion och utbyggnad av viktiga samhällsinstitutioner och ökad efterfrågan på högre utbildning. Riksdag och regering beslutade att universitets-filialer skulle etableras i Karlstad, Linköping, Växjö och Örebro från 1967, så att den högre utbildningen skulle komma fler människor till del och fler delar av landet få tillgång till avancerad kunskap. Det dröjde ett tag innan denna utbyggnad kom det konstvetenskapliga ämnet till del. Det fanns dock efterfrågan från flera håll. Den expanderande lärarutbildningens inslag av bildpedagogik krävde konst- och bildkunniga lärare, designutbildningarna efterfrågade designhistorisk kunskap och de kulturhistoriska institutionerna mötte önskemål om utbildning i konsthistoria.I detta kapitel kommer vi att redogöra för hur ämnet konst- och bildvetenskap etablerades vid universiteten i Växjö och Karlstad vid det senaste millennieskiftet, det vill säga ca 100 år efter den första etableringen av ämnet i Sverige. Vi avser att diskutera de olika förutsättningar som rådde inom akademin och samhället, och jämföra hur de påverkade inriktning och möjlighet till profilering den första gången ämnet instiftades i Lund och Uppsala med den sista, i alla fall den senaste, gången, i Karlstad och Växjö.Vi avser att beskriva hur ämnena har vuxit fram inom de båda universiteten och hur de utvecklats. Vår text kommer att analysera hur organisatoriska strukturer på lärosätena och allianser med andra ämnen påverkade ämnena i såväl undervisnings- som forskningshänseende. Vi avser att beskriva hur likheter och skillnader mellan konstvetenskap och bildpedagogik breddade repertoaren av relevanta metoder och teorier, vilket var betydelsefullt för utvecklingen av mellanliggande områden såsom konstpedagogik. Samarbete med designutbildning gav konstvetarna praktisk förankring av teoretiska kunskaper och bidrog till de blivande designernas utveckling av historisk och teoretisk förståelse av sin yrkesmässiga verksamhet.Intresset för ämnets verksamhet inom regionala konst- och kulturorganisationer har också gett en god förankring inom arbetslivet, vilket också kan kopplas till studenternas deltagande i utbildningsprogram med stor samhällsrelevans.
This article describes Dak'Art's role as a platform for critical global views. The author examines the biennial's origins and development in recent years, and shows, by interpreting some of the exhibited artworks from 2008, 2010 and 2012, that Dak'Art represents an alternative kind of global exhibition that shifts the perspective from insistent demands of the north to critical global viewpoints. Many of the artworks communicated messages critical of the European Union, particularly with regard to historical and contemporary problems with borders and boundaries. Pan-African unity was often proposed as an alternative solution. The biennial redefines the concept of internationalism through this Pan-African orientation, and serves as a platform for tackling urgent contemporary issues around politics, ethics, globalization, identity and postcolonial conditions.
Dakar is situated at the western edge of Africa. It has been the site for a Lebou settlement, a centre for slave trade, and during colonial time capital of the French Western Africa. Since Senegal’s independence in 1960 Dakar has been its capital. Léopold Sédar Senghor was the first president. (Cooper, 2009:45.) As one of the founders of the Négritude movement, he placed the arts at the centre of his attempt to create a modern nationalist identity based on traditional West African values. Twenty-five percent of the state budget was directed to the Ministry of Culture for art schools, publishing houses, theatres, museums and art exhibition. Similar ideas were implemented in other newly independent African countries (Harney, 2004:49). In 1966 the first World Festival for Black Art and Culture was organised in Dakar, and in 1992 Dakar’s first international biennial art exhibition took place. Since the middle of the 1990’s Dak’Art has focused almost uniquely on African contemporary art. (Bydler 2004:274.)I have visited the Dak’art exhibitions in 2008 and 2010 and will go there again in beginning of May 2012. The exhibited works of art have been similar to Western contemporary art in terms of technique and multimodality. But the meanings of the selected works of art are often politically sharp and questioning historical and contemporary relations on a global level. (Dak’Art 2008, Dak’Art 2010.) At NORDIK2012 I would like to discuss how political issues have been communicated through artworks shown at Dak’Art 2008, 2010 and 2012, with interpretations from a postcolonial perspective.
Migration is one of the main global issues influencing daily life for people all over the world. Some people even call it one of the big traumas of today (Wiman 2013). At the same time as migration is related to shelter and new possibilities for refugees, it also causes distance from cultural roots and need for adaptation. The newly arrived have much to give to the new cultural context in which they settle down, but they also need to understand the new cultural context and also make themselves understood. When newly arrived immigrants and local residents meet, both fruitful discussions and problematic confrontations may occur. One multicultural meeting place of great importance is the school, where young people can learn about each others way of life and construct intercultural understanding. Comics and graphic novels have in recent years gained a rising interest as media for a great variety of stories. They have often been autobiographical (El Refaie 2012). Famous examples of this phenomenon are Marjane Satrapis Persepolis and Aya from Yopougon by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubreire. These stories also tell their readers about the culture they come from, and they can be studied in schools with an intercultural purpose. Pupils in schools can also learn from drawing and writing comics themselves, to tell about their lives and what is important for them. I have studied the use of educational comics in Senegal, West Africa, where students from my university have been staying for field studies in art education, and in Sweden where I live and teach. This presentation will show how comics and graphic novels can be used for educational purposes. I will argue that comics and graphic novels are well suited to be used as educational media in the way that it helps the reader to construct intercultural understanding.