Arts and humanities
When we think of the creative impulse, we think of the arts. Painting, sculpture, music, storytelling, and poetry are fundamental to what it means to be human, and they are essential to understanding the way we learn.
At Massey we are proud of our strength in the arts and humanities—fine art, the teaching of literature and creative writing, music, philosophy, history and foreign languages. These disciplines form the bedrock for creativity across all three campuses.
Award-winning teacher Angie Farrow is a senior lecturer in the expressive arts who pioneered the teaching of Creative Processes in the School of English and Media Studies and in the Massey Business School. Drawing on dance, drama, visual arts, film and digital media, the course encourages students to harness their creative energy as a basis for becoming better ‘performers in life’, whether as artists, teachers, entrepreneurs, marketers or future leaders.
Likewise, senior lecturer Dr Bryan Walpert in the School of English, himself also a winner of the National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award, is convinced of the importance of teaching creative writing and not just as part of an English degree. He believes that learning to follow the language, rather than our intentions, has a lot to teach us in many areas of life, and it often leads—for example, in science—to fruitful discoveries.