Curricular
Summary
An exhibition of Video, Publications and Conceptual Instructions that considered the relations between ‘The Educational Turn’ and histories of ‘radical’ Art Education.
Description of project
Curricular is an exhibition that includes artist videos, documentaries and a set of art historically significant lesson plans. It focuses on the activities, cultures, histories and communities of a select number of arts schools - Black Mountain College (USA), California Institute of the Arts (USA), Hornsey College of Art (UK), Immaculate Heart College (US), Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Canada) and Rochdale College (Canada). Depicted are differing models of pedagogy, revealing the philosophies or approaches to teaching of individuals such as Michael Asher (Cal-Arts), David Askevold (N.S.C.A.D) and Sister Corita Kent (Immaculate Heart College). A small reading area includes books, handouts and downloads relating to the schools and educators represented and other texts relating to art and education.
The exhibition focuses on departments, schools, individuals or activities that are considered as having been ‘experimental’, ‘radical’ or ‘ground-breaking’ as, or their future impact on more formal educational contexts than the majority considered as complicit to ‘The Educational Turn’ in Contemporary Art.
Debates regarding ‘The Educational Turn’ focus on a broader shift overall towards pedagogical models within contemporary art such as: the international proliferation of ‘alternative’ or ‘independent’ art schools developed by artists and collectives and sited within ‘artist-led’ cultures such as ‘alternative spaces’ (but also incorporated into institutional frameworks); a re-profiling of radical pedagogic theories including the works of Pablo Freire and Ivan Illivic; modes of art-making that place emphasis on ‘processes’ and ‘participation’ and thus problematise aesthetics and objecthood; and the development of expanded fields of programming within exhibitionary institutions such as gallery education as a site of ‘learning’, ‘interpretation’ and ‘education’.
Type of work
Curated exhibition
Published in
Rotor 1, Valand Academy
Other description
Video Documentaries of Radical Art Educators and Radical Moments within Art Education:
Contributors:
Redmond Entwhistle (UK/USA), Baylis Glascock (USA), Patricia Holland (UK), Ron Mann (Canada), Cathryn Davis Zommer and Neeley House (USA).
Lesson Plans:
Whilst teaching at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Canada), artist David Askevold invited almost exclusively Conceptual Art practitioners to provide instructions for classes, which came to be known as The Projects Class (1969-72).
Exhibited:
Robert Barry, Mel Bochner, James Lee Byars, Jan Dibbets, Dan Graham, Douglas Huebler, Sol Lewitt, Lucy R. Lippard, N.E. Thing Co. Ltd, Robert Smithson & Lawrence Weiner.