English for Art Purposes (2008)

Interview with Kate Griffeath, an academic intrapreneur who has led the growth of programming of specialized English for art students, now numbering 2000 at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, USA.

R.J. Preece (EFL)
artdesigncafé | café library | Re-published 22 July 2011
Co-partnered with Sculpture online, Nov 2008 issue

This article focuses on a little-recognized area that makes an important contribution to the quality of international art communication. Sometimes it’s called Language of Art and Design (English); at the Academy of Art University, it’s called English for Art Purposes. Like Business English, this training enables art/design students and professionals from English as a Second/Foreign Language backgrounds to communicate more effectively in an increasingly English-oriented art world.[1]

I came from a similar teaching/materials development background before focusing exclusively on art, design, and writing. Back in 1996 while I was based in Hong Kong, I had the chance to meet Kate Griffeath, former director of the English for Art Program and now Executive Vice President of Educational Support at the Academy of Art University (AAU) in San Francisco. I recall comparing notes about our work at a time when English for Art Purposes was a fragile field, with an uncertain future.

Since then, Kate and her team have developed their programming in ways that could never have been imagined. There are now over 300 on-site and on-line language classes at AAU. This year, the university supports more than 2,000 international students and employs more than 35 full-time and 40 part-time teaching professionals. This must be by far the largest art-oriented English programming in the world, and if art education administrators across the globe don’t know about it already, now is the time to take note.

R.J. Preece: When you started, did you ever imagine that the programming would grow to its current level?

Kate Griffeath: Not at all. We started out with two teachers, and now we have more than 70 devoted to English for Art Purposes (EAP).

R.J. Preece: What challenges have you faced over the years with regard to EAP development?

Kate Griffeath: The first day I arrived in 1990, there was a petition on my desk signed by everyone teaching in one of the departments. They were against the pilot program that I was about to start. That was my welcome letter. [Laughs.]

R.J. Preece: Why was there such resistance?

Kate Griffeath: Because they were afraid of having low-English-proficiency, international students in their art classes. They thought it would be disruptive. But I felt very strongly that it could work out. I learned the value of English for Specific Purposes during my studies at Columbia University, so I believed it could be done with art and design. Even then, there was a history of specialized language teaching in areas like business and technology.

However, once the teachers realized how talented the students were and how much they were bringing to the environment, they began to get excited about it. It seemed that the whole energy changed; there was an appreciation of the dynamic, international mix, of working together. And there was the strong visual and kinesthetic element, which also communicates— sometimes more than the words you are trying to attach to it.

Reference:
[1] To learn more about this field, the ERIC documents database is a good starting point.

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