Dr Robyn Gibson

Dr Robyn Gibson, is Associate Professor in Visual Arts, SSESW, University of Sydney, completed her Masters at Ohio State University before undertaking her PhD in Australia. She has been a primary-school teacher, art/craft specialist and tertiary educator in Australia and the US. Robyn's doctoral thesis explored the relationship between Surrealism and fashion, specifically the creative collaborations between the Surrealist, Salvador Dali and fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. An advocate for the imperative of the Arts and Creativity across the curriculum, Robyn has also lectured extensively in a range of tertiary environments: nationally in fashion and textile design at RMIT, UTS and the Melbourne College of Fashion; and internationally in the Human Ecology College at Ohio State University, the College of Education at the University of Houston and the College of Education at the University of Memphis. Robyn writes about primary-school education in the visual and creative arts. Her past research focused on children's attitudes to art, art making and art education. Currently she is examining the role of arts education in academic motivation, engagement & achievement as part of a large ARC funded research project. Her other academic research utilises interdisciplinary methodologies such as arts-informed inquiry and a/r/tography and concerns art as research/research as art particularly the connection between clothes & memory.