Drawing reading group conflict

Today's session was probably the most problematic one we have had so far and I am not quite sure how it will impact on the work I have been doing in the Drawing Reading Group.

AR, the Kingston Student was presenting a session on mapping research and we had a member of staff attending to observe research degree students. This member of staff is organising a quite high profile drawing symposium and is quite keen to involve a few of the drawing Students in an archive curatorial project. My immediate thoughts were protective over my student's time. How much will it be involved in the project? Will it sidetrack them from their plan of work? I invited her to join our drawing reading group, hoping that seeing the students 'in action' would give her a clearer idea of the researcher's processes.

In the Drawing Reading Group sessions, we only have 1.30 hours to discuss quite intense and problematic topics. The member of staff dominated the process, as we had to introduce ourselves and the topics of our research and she had a lot of interest and questions to ask. The issues she raised were very pertinent and appropriate to the project she had in hand but perhaps would have been more appropriate in the context of a meeting or a tutorial (as she gave copious and helpful references to each student).

I sensed the students were feeling as if their time was been 'taken away' from the issues they wanted to discuss (ie. the maps and the drawings) and when eventually we got round to these, the member of staff took on a teacher-holding-knowledge approach that the students felt slightly threatened by. I did not envisage such active participation by the member of staff and due to her practice background, some of her concepts did clash with the research approach my students were taking (ie concentration on mark making and form, rather than on the problem proposed, which went around issues of practice vs research etc...).

I had to take on a passive role and gently sway the conversation as best I could as AR was leading the group and I was only facilitating. Even though I made our roles clear at the beginning of the session, these were not fully respected and caused a bit of conflict which I diplomatically tried to ease of. I thought the students argued their positions very well and stood for themselves very well. In the end, there was a sort of coming together though the staff's questioning and understanding and she apologized for having monopolized the situation.

Part of the aim of the session was to unpack this curatorial project and I felt that, given the enthusiasm of the Kingston student we could not let her out of our community, even if the project was aimed at Wimbledon students. I proposed going to the archive induction as the Drawing Reading Group and, once we see what the archive material can give us, decide who participates, who leads, who would rather dedicate their time somewhere else and what themes we chose.

I am delighted of being part of the project and I think the session went as best as it could, considering all the things we had to juggle. Still, I wish we had a more intense and productive discussion of the problem in hand and I hope these session do not lose their momentum after all the work we have put in to make them as special and useful as they are.