Tate values and Community theory
I was delighted to read that Maria Balshaw has been appointed as the new director of the UK's most famous art galleries: the Tate . I had the pleasure of working alongside Dr Maria Balshaw at “Nene” or “University College” in the late 1990s, which was an immensely exciting time to be a Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies. The undergraduate course was very ambitious in terms of its academic complexity and its diversity of ideas about the relationship between Theory, the Arts, and Society. As collaborators in an innovative institution we felt liberated to take risks and to embrace creative challenges within the “Combined Honours” degree programme. At the same time, tutors such as Maria played an influential personal and academic support role with students who were sometimes surprised to find that they had been fortunate to have been awarded an opportunity to study for a degree. As a tutor, Maria inspired students to have the co...