Teacher as conceptual artist is not a formula. Thinking through conceptual art practices simply engenders the big question: what permissions does conceptual art open up for a teaching practice? In the discussion about teacher/artist identities, the Mexican-American artist and scholar Jorge Lucero argues that the perceived gap between teacher and artist identities could be closed through an understanding of how these identities overlap and integrate into each other. Building on developments in conceptual and social art, Lucero coined the idea of the teacher as conceptual artist. He proposes that a teacher’s practice – in and out of the classroom – can simultaneously be their creative practice. According to Lucero, redefining the school – with its proceedings, relationships, and obligations – as ‘artistic material’, opens up possibilities to engage in a practice in which educational and artistic goals are simultaneously pursued.

Jorge Lucero is a conceptual artist and educator. He currently serves as Associate Professor and Chair of Art Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. His current research is concerned with the interstices of contemporary art practices with distinctly pedagogical properties (e.g. conceptual art, performance art, participatory and socially engaged art) and how those modes of operation propose alternative approaches to making, learning, relationships, ethics, spirituality, generativity, and civic engagement. Coming from a studio practice, Jorge’s research has unfolded from a desire to understand the confluence between his research activities (sometimes identified as art) and his teaching persona.
Jorge doesn’t teach and “make art on the side”, he has identified a strategy–through conceptual art practices–where his teaching and creative practices are the same thing.