Open Studios is the beginning of a conversation: Creating critical and reflective learners through innovative feedback and assessment in Fine Art

In recent years, increased attention has been paid to feedback and assessment in Fine Art. This has revealed a need for the pedagogic culture of Art and Design subjects to be better understood, particularly from the perspective of the student experience. Accordingly, this article presents findings from a Higher Education Academyfunded project that investigated feedback and assessment within creative practice through a case study of Newcastle University’s Open Studios (OS) feedback and assessment model. Through this we argue that multifaceted feedback models best address some of the problems surrounding the feedback–assessment relationship in studio-based disciplines, particularly assisting students to develop the critical and reflective capacities on which much studio-based tuition is built. Within this, however, careful consideration needs to be made of the power relationships in studio dialogues. Unlike traditional academic disciplines, the research revealed a premise placed on feedback rather than grades within Fine Art where, as the students put it ‘it’s more about building a practice’.