The recent Power of things workshop at Flinders drew academics, professional staff and research students from a range of areas, including from Alice Springs via videoconference.

Held in the Alere Function Centre at Bedford Park and convened by Flinders University Art Museum (FUAM), the workshop’s audience learned about new initiatives to link FUAM’s collections to teaching and learning across the University.

This included insights to The power of things project currently underway with academics in Humanities, Psychiatry and Visual Arts.

A roundtable discussion led by FUAM Director, Ms Fiona Salmon, saw the three academics involved with the project share some of their experiences at the forefront of reconnecting with Flinders’ proud tradition of teaching with art and other objects and refreshing those practices.

Keynote speaker and project team member, Dr Heather Gaunt from the University of Melbourne, exemplified the potential for collections of art in higher education, pointing to the diverse programs she has helped build over the past five years and now delivers with her team and participating academics to some 8,000 students annually.

“Programs like those at Melbourne and case studies internationally are demonstrating the value of art and other objects in tertiary contexts, not only for the pursuit of subject specific knowledge but equally in addressing the development of graduate attributes,” Ms Salmon said.

“By working in partnership across and between disciplines we aim to tap the pedagogical potential of the FUAM collections in innovative ways.”