Rose Martin

Hope on the edge: Recalibrating arts education in unstable times

In a world marked by instability and ethical rupture, the arts arguably remain one of our most vital and hopeful sites for confronting the ‘itches’ of our times. Building on my recent work exploring radical hope, methodological courage, and the responsibilities of arts education in moments of crisis, this keynote asks how artists, educators, and researchers can move from witnessing to acting, and from silence to solidarity. Drawing on autoethnographic encounters, communal practices of dance and performance, and a forthcoming project on arts education in times of genocide, I explore what it means to cultivate practices that refuse neutrality and attend to discomfort as a generative force. In conversation with earlier reflections on hopepunk methodologies and the sustaining power of embodied, relational arts pedagogies, I invite us to imagine how arts education can recalibrate itself – ethically, politically, creatively – toward more just and courageous futures.

Rose Martin (PhD) is Dean of the Faculty of Education, Arts and Culture at Nord University and a Professor of Arts Education. Rose was a dancer with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and prior to joining Nord University she held academic positions at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway. Rose has extensive experience in research and teaching in the Middle East, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. Her research interests include dance education; arts and politics; and inclusive arts practices.