Transmeeting art: Educating in the real experience of digital communication

Abstract

The digital transformation carried out by the Rey Juan Carlos University, derived from the resilience to the COVID-19 health crisis, has generated the opportunity to improve the acquisition of digital competencies and skills by the students of the Master's Degree in Art Market Management who are studying the subject "Art Market Sectors and their Management". Currently, the compulsory tasks in the degree have been intertwined as a transformative and creative proposal for the transfer of knowledge in society. On the other hand, the events sector, specifically art fairs, is one of the great engines of the Art Market. It is the forum in which supply and demand converge on a large scale, bringing together a large group of expert sellers in various fields, which attract the visit of collectors, thus serving as an instrument for market prospecting and guidance on future collection lines. Thus, fairs become an ideal scenario for students, through experiential learning, to acquire skills based on the day-to-day life of the event. In addition, students use the market reports applied to artists, works or artistic currents, which they have prepared prior to the fair, not only to deepen their knowledge in the aforementioned subject and acquire specific skills [e.g., cataloguing artistic and collectible goods and their subsequent management (CE-04)], but also as a starting point for creating content and incorporating it into the digital communication tools of these art fairs. Finally, students anonymously answer questionnaires where they assess the quality of experiential learning. The overall assessment has been good or very good for 88% of the students, who rate the quality in the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies as very high. In short, this educational approach allows students to become familiar with communication strategies, study and apply them effectively, understand their target audience, and manage institutional profiles that require a professional and/or technical approach. The benefits derived from the use of digital technology are numerous, not only in terms of learning these tools, which enhance innovative capacities, but also in their ability to stimulate creativity, interest in the subject and foster a sense of community that promotes teamwork. The greatest challenge of this teaching methodology lies in adapting the educational system to a virtual public environment, which serves as a conversational and interactive space to disseminate knowledge to society and experiment with new learning routines based on collaborative creation. From an academic and informative perspective, this type of experiential learning is very enriching, stimulating the development of technical and social skills that are fundamental for participation in contemporary society.