Presence.

"Letting Come." The inner work of redirecting and seeing with the heart is the essence of gifting students with belief in the intrinsic worth of their creative pursuits.

The book Presence. 2005 (Diagram of Concept) had a profound effect on the way I view teaching and experiencing art. Rather than stun me with new and exciting knowledge about the teaching of the Creative Arts it reinforced my way of seeing the subject as 'reflexive.' I understood that a Creative Arts teacher has to be ever developing a strong sense of self.

The idea of 'Letting Come' swirls around nurturing ideas, projects and collaborations without temptation to force. A 'hands off' attitude to another artist's learning is essential. The teacher becomes a companion of the student rather than a container of knowledge. Not a guru or a sage but a co-learner in a process of co-creation.

I see the Creative Arts as channelling, presencing and realising community ecologies. Together we dream, together we design, together we realise and direction our being. Optimal cooperation requires suspension of personal belief, so that 'we' can see the whole from within the organisation.

An organisation can be any group of two or more beings that come together to share and experience. So a Theatre Company for example comes together to dream about a production. A couple can dream about an animation.

No one part of any collaboration can be allowed to monopolise the creative process. Indeed sometimes the less featured parts can influence the whole very profoundly. Simple presence can be powerful due to its subtlety. Set design is one example of an artistic presence that can influence with little conscious awareness on the part of the audience. Even when the stage is left bare the very starkness itself can influence 'seeing' and thus the experience.

The authors of the book encourage us to suspend prior belief and to 'look consciously at our looking' so that we can become aware of influences and triggers sufficiently to be released from them in an attempt to step back and take in the whole.