When Bob and Roberta Smith was elected a Royal Academician in 2013, he had a more complex relationship with the Academy than most. He remembered well the feeling of suspense as his parents, both artists, waited to find out if their submissions had been accepted for the annual Summer Exhibition. The outcome brought jubilation or despair, but rarely to both, which led to its problems. In The Secret to a Good Life, Bob and Roberta Smith introduces his mother, Deirdre Borlase, and her encounters with the often sexist and classist art establishment of postwar Britain. Her story has led her son to ruminate on drawing, politics and the challenge art can pose to authority, as well as to reminisce on his experience of growing up in a household with two painters for parents. In the colourful signwriting style for which he is best known, Bob and Roberta Smith tells a poignant and political family story and answers the question: what is the secret to a good life?00Exhibition: Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (20.03.2018 - 18.08.2019).

Art Makes People Powerful is an art activity book made by celebrated British artist Royal Academician Bob and Roberta Smith. Through his original artworks, discover just how art makes people powerful.

Museums and Well-being outlines the historical development of well-being within museums and offers a critical engagement with this field from a museum studies perspective. The essential thesis of the book is that well-being is a collective action. The book utilises the Five Ways to Well-being as a model: Connect, Be Active, Keep Learning, Give and Take Notice. Each of these Ways are explored through a specific museum object illustrating the important role collections can play in museum well-being. The book considers how museum well-being, and the austerity project became entwined, and how the COVID-19 pandemic supercharged growth in this field. The book explores such diverse topics as walking, slow art, social capital, Virginia Woolf, body positivity, collective joy, identity, art therapy, yoga, Squid Game, Effective Altruism, mindfulness, gift exchange, the Preston model, the limits of data, sketching, photography, inclusive spaces, and workplace well-being. The book signposts a vast array of existing information, and offers a critical engagement with current practices. Museums and Well-being is aimed initially to students of museum studies programmes, it is also an ideal book for museum staff who need to add a well-being component to their existing programming; or to reconsider existing programming from the perspective of well-being.

A playful reintroduction to the artist within us all—including hands-on exercises—from the renowned and inspirational teachers. According to contemporary artist and activist Bob and Roberta Smith, every human is an artist. Drawing is an important part of learning to communicate, and above all else, life is a conversation, making art a vital part of human existence. You Are an Artist helps the reader work out what kind of artist they are and what they can achieve, combining thought- provoking meditation on art practice with practical exercises and creative prompts that encourage creativity and self-expression. This collection of entertaining, at times startling, and often evocative narratives bring to life a series of lessons about the nature of art and inspiration. Providing ideas, tips, and practical examples from Bob’s own work as an art teacher and activist, You Are an Artist is for everyone who wants to be an artist and needs a creative push to take the plunge.

There exists a series of contemporary artists who continually defy the traditional role of the artist/author, including Art & Language, Guerrilla Girls, Bob and Roberta Smith, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Lucky PDF. In Death of the Artist, Nicola McCartney explores their work and uses previously unpublished interviews to provoke a vital and nuanced discussion about contemporary artistic authorship. How do emerging artists navigate intellectual property or work collectively and share the recognition? How might a pseudonym aid 'artivism'? Most strikingly, she demonstrates how an alternative identity can challenge the art market and is symptomatic of greater cultural and political rebellion. As such, this book exposes the art world's financially incentivised infrastructures, but also examines how they might be reshaped from within. In an age of cuts to arts funding and forced self-promotion, this offers an important analysis of the pressing need for the artistic community to construct new ways to reinvent itself and incite fresh responses to its work.

Learn how to jump-start your imagination to conjure up innovative, worthwhile ideas with help from some of the greatest artists in the world. How do artists think? Where does their creativity originate? How can we, too, learn to be more creative? BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz seeks answers to these questions in his exuberant, intelligent, witty, and thought-provoking style. Think Like an Artist identifies ten key lessons on creativity from artists that range from Caravaggio to Warhol, Da Vinci to Ai Weiwei, and profiles leading contemporary figures in the arts who are putting these skills to use today. After getting up close and personal with some of the world’s leading creative thinkers, Gompertz has discovered traits that are common to them all. He outlines basic practices and processes that allow your talents to flourish and enable you to embrace your inner Picasso—no matter what you do for a living. With wisdom, inspiration, and advice from an author named one of the fifty most original thinkers in the world by Creativity magazine, Think Like an Artist is an illuminating view into the habits that make people successful. It’s time to get inspired and think like an artist!

A Practical Guide to Teaching Art and Design in the Secondary School bridges the gap between key themes in Art and Design education theory, professional practice and the classroom. This practical and accessible book introduces methods for the delivery of engaging Art and Design lessons that safely and meaningfully address the current key issues in the subject. Each chapter includes tasks to support trainee and early career teachers in implementing, reviewing and adapting their teaching. Chapters cover a range of core approaches to the curriculum such as powerful knowledge for the Art and Design teacher, the place of Art History in the curriculum and critical thinking in Art and Design learning. In addition, emerging cultural and political issues (such as decolonising the Art and Design curriculum, gender and sexuality, anti-ablism, sustainability and well-being) are explored in ways designed to guide teachers towards applying their own unique teaching style. Linking directly to the planning and delivery of the subject in Key Stages 3, 4 and 5, the book is divided into three sections: Imaginative Curiosity for the Art and Design Teacher Epistemological Curiosity for Teachers and Learners Critical Curiosity in the Art and Design Classroom Designed to be used independently or alongside the essential textbook Learning to Teach Art and Design in the Secondary School, this book is packed with practical strategies, teaching ideas and activities in every chapter. The book provides everything trainee and early career teachers need to reflect on and develop their teaching practice, helping them to plan lessons across the subject in a variety of teaching situations.