The exhibition of a lecture and events forum positioned as a “school” by various art practitioners is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of cultural production today. Take for example the New Museum’s Night School, The Bruce High Quality Foundation University, the Class Room at the New York Art Book Fair, or even The University of Trash at the Sculpture Center—not to mention this very program. Considering that talk is thick these days about education and educational models, what better place and time than now to self-reflexively question what we are all doing here! So, to begin, lets pose a few, possibly loaded, Socratic questions:
- What is the difference between “a school” and an education?
- What motivates an artist or cultural producer to create “schools” in the first place? What is at stake for the “principals”?
- What differentiates “ free schools” from the more traditional, and free, programs already offered by institutional education departments such as conferences, colloquia, workshops and the like? What are the strengths and weakness of each form?
- Who funds and /or supports free schools? Why do they?
- What is the social capital of a free school?
- Although a college education may cost well over $100,000, are free schools really an “alterative”? What does it mean when these free schools begin appropriating terms like “university” or “course”.
- Is google a free school—consider that the word school is derived from the ancient Greek word for leisure. What other free sources of education are taken for granted, ie the New York Public Library, various centers and lectures at Columbia University, New York University, the Americas Society, PBS on-line, MIT open source, and so forth.
- What is the difference between a school and a service?
- Is research a necessary component of a school, or is experimentation and exchange and end in itself?
- What obligations, commitments, criteria, or otherwise should a school provide?
- What is the difference between a free school and a book of the month club or any similar informal social activity?
- Is there a labor relation between reality tv and a free school? Don’t both use the production of a below the line volunteer as both content and content producer?
- Without granting any form of competency, which can be defined in the both vocational as well as the intellectual sense, what is really at stake for the student?
- Is the exhibition of something, which takes the form of a school, actually a school?
Suggested Reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/arts/design/13roberta.html
Suggested assignment:
Create an itinerary for the next two moths featuring free educational offerings in New York--thematize the list if you like. While creating this itinerary, make a list of centers, ie http://www.nyu.edu/ipk/
, which offer these activates and categorizes them.
And additional suggestion:
Create a catalog of free school being offered today and try to categorize them into different models. For example:
The appropriated University:
Night School, BHQFU (as above) and
http://www.roguefilmschool.com/
Reading groups / clubs:
http://a.aaaarg.org/discussions
Social Activities/outings:
http://www.futurefarmers.com/play/
Pickpocket Almanack (thanks Adam)
Skills:
a la "cheap rhino tricks"
"Traditional":
- Date
- December 1, 2009 at 6:00pm
- Location
- Brownies Cafe, Avery Hall, Columbia University
- Facilitator
- Adam Kleinman
- Limit
- 20
- Fee
- free - you don't need to pay, but someone will...
Comment
As a point of reference, in regards to the suggested assignment, participants may want to check out the pickpocket almanack (http://www.pickpocketalmanack.org) taking place in San Francisco.
22 Nov 2009 11:30AM
Thanks, good suggestion. If there is any interest, I can invite the curator, Joe Del Pesco, to join us.
23 Nov 2009 8:41AM
also consider that the word "pedagogue" is derived from the ancient greek word for the slave who's responsibility it was to lead the masters son to the educative institution - carrying books etc.
23 Nov 2009 11:05AM
it would be great to include Joe Del Pesco.
23 Nov 2009 11:48AM
some other examples of resources or organizers are
artist run:
http://machineproject.com/
http://www.anhoekschool.org/
http://www.allisonsmithstudio.com/pages.php?content=news.php&navGallID=News
http://www.dismalgarden.org/
general archives:
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
ill post more when i think of them
23 Nov 2009 1:12PM
The Teaching Artist Union (www.teachingartistunion.org) and the Institute for Applied Aesthetics (www.applied-aesthetics.org) would love to help with this project/class. Lets meet up for tea!
24 Nov 2009 8:32AM
The Platform for Pedagogy...
http://platformed.org/archive/0066/
24 Nov 2009 2:29PM
Thank you for Platform for Pedagogy link, I would think that this plus the Pickpocket Alman are another category of "Listings" --not to mention my first proposed assignment
24 Nov 2009 2:39PM
Class Reminder: Tonight
Free schools as artistic practice--at what or who's cost?
Class Led by Adam Keliman
Dec. 1st, 2009 6:00 PM
Brownies Cafe, Avery Hall, Columbia University
1 Dec 2009 10:29AM
For those of you who are not familiar with the Columbia University Campus, here are specific directions to Brownies Cafe:
Enter Columbia University through the main gate at 116th St and Broadway. Walk along college walk to the center of the Campus. The Sundial will be on your right. Turn left toward Lowe Library and walk up the main steps. After you pass the statue of Alma Mater turn right. Turn left onto the next major walkway. Pass Buell hall (a small white building) and St. Paul's Chapel. Avery Hall will be on your right. When you enter Avery there will be a set of stairs to your left that lead to the basement where Brownies Cafe is located.
1 Dec 2009 11:18AM
A couple things I brought up last night:
http://thewe.net/math/
http://bowlingalone.com/
Thanks for a thought provoking night!
2 Dec 2009 2:19PM
Thank you everyone - I thought that was a really great conversation last night and I've been thinking about it since. If people have additional thoughts / links, it would be great to continue to compile them here. Along those lines, here are a couple additional projects:
The Mountain School: http://themountainschoolofarts.org
16Beaver (which started as a reading group and sometimes acts like a school): http://16beavergroup.org
2 Dec 2009 2:30PM
Nice to meet you all and I'm glad I came down for the discussion, I found it valuable to share our information.
An incomplete list I put together last night, some of these are re-posts from other places on this page but it might be useful to have it in one chunk in case you want to cut and paste this into a separate document:
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL http://la.thepublicschool.org/
Platform for Pedagogy http://www.platformed.org/
The Anhoek School http://www.anhoekschool.org/
New Museum’s Night School
The Bruce High Quality Foundation University http://www.bhqfu.org/Site/home.html
the Class Room at the New York Art Book Fair
The University of Trash at the Sculpture Center
http://a.aaaarg.org/discussions
http://www.16beavergroup.org/
http://www.futurefarmers.com/play/
Pickpocket Almanack http://www.pickpocketalmanack.org/
http://www.ssrn.com/
http://machineproject.com/
http://www.allisonsmithstudio.com/pages.php?content=news.php&navGallID=News
http://www.dismalgarden.org/
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.hopeginsburg.com/sponge.php
Ted Purves Momentary Academy http://www.delpesco.com/blog/archives/000330.html
The Teaching Artist Union (www.teachingartistunion.org)
the Institute for Applied Aesthetics (www.applied-aesthetics.org)
Institute for Public Knowledge http://www.nyu.edu/ipk/event_series/
Mess Hall http://www.temporaryservices.org/mess_hall.html
Fritz Haeg Salon
A Village Does Nothing
And a list from http://www.delpesco.com/blog/archives/edu-projects/ : (go to page for descriptions and links)
Learning Site
Sundown Schoolhouse
unitednationsplaza
Colourschool
University of Sodan Art
Arbour Lake Sghool
Toronto School of Creativity & Inquiry
Independent School of Art
Momentary Academy
The School of Panamerican Unrest
Mountain School of Art
Prospectus for New Marlborough Centre for Arts
The Copenhagen Free University
Umeå School
Projects Class
Manifesta 6 School
Playshop
2 Dec 2009 2:53PM
i wish i could have attended this discussion, but was on the wrong coast. i hope that if one of you visits LA sometime soon then we could wrangle you in to leading an imprecise copy of the class here. so, as a distant observer, i'm wondering if you all went into the excellent questions that adam posed or if it primarily involved sharing references to recent projects?
in this issue on AAAARG (http://a.aaaarg.org/issue/2990/pedagogical-models) you'll find a pdf for the learning exchange, which i think is another interesting point of reference. and JDP once shared an article about a traditional school in philadelphia that began offering classes throughout the city in the 70s (but alas i lost it - joseph, if you are lurking, maybe you could post it to AAAARG?)
i'm interested to soak up as much as i can from your discussion, which has i think some unspoken relation to a class we're having here on saturday: http://la.thepublicschool.org/class/1856
2 Dec 2009 3:45PM
Thank you for an insightful evening and for the follow-up notes! Something that may be of interest are the writings of Ivan Illich. I just started reading "Tools for Conviviality" http://bit.ly/IaOA5. Also check out "A Special Supplement: Education Without School: How It Can Be Done" http://bit.ly/76WBXP and "Deschooling Society" http://bit.ly/7lIhGo
These are from the early 70s but are still relevant. Happy learning!
–Kamomi
2 Dec 2009 9:46PM
> from: sean dockray 2 Dec 2009 3:45PM
> "i'm wondering if you all went into the excellent questions that
> adam posed or if it primarily involved sharing references to
> recent projects?[...] i'm interested to soak up as much as i can
> from your discussion [...]"
Ditto about wanting to come but couldn't make it & so if someone does archive the information from the event it would be very much appreciated. I see a lot of energy going *in* to these type of programming/discussions but never coming *out*, it always gets lost in the noise or else the next day it's business as usual.
p.s. Overlapping at the tail end of The Night School at the New Museum was a program call Art Research Reading Group, headed by a New Museum fellow, which was more student focused and you didn't have to apply, it's still around floating, nebulous, still student un/focused, in case anyone is interested http://groups.google.com/group/art-research-reading-group
3 Dec 2009 9:28AM
In case anyone is interested, this is taken from an email that was forwarded to me. I can't find this text anywhere on the BHQFU website.
BHQFU, THE EXHIBITION
DEC 8 - JAN 23
OPENING 6 - 8 PM DEC 8 AT SUSAN INGLETT GALLERY
522 W 24TH ST
"We got more than just a whiff. We practically tasted it with the impact." - NASA
Founded September 11th, 2009, The Bruce High Quality Foundation University is a willfully unaccredited, free university of the arts located in TriBeCa. A school without teachers for students without class, the curriculum has developed over the past few months through a weekly class called BYOU (Build Your Own University). For more information about the school, please visit bhqfu.org.
BHQFU, the exhibition, however, is not intended as a summary of the activities of the school. Rather it is a reflection of the dreams and nightmares that have made up the conversation about the school's possible futures. How will it all end? How does it relate to its historical precedents and improve on past alternative education models? How does it make larger statements about the impoverishing state of arts education today? How does it build infrastructure without watering down its mission?
The answer: we're going to space.
8 Dec 2009 11:59AM
I created a proposal for a class, Kultural Kapital v2 that might be a nice extension of the conversation we started at the Free Schools class.
http://nyc.thepublicschool.org/class/1896
It's actually copied form a class happening in LA, but we could change it to our liking.
8 Dec 2009 12:09PM
Here is a blog post listing a few free schools in the americas, including 'La Ivan Illich' which i think is working with 'The Public School':
http://centrefortheaestheticrevolution.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-independ...
11 Dec 2009 10:48AM
Class Reminder: Tomorrow
The Public School (for Architecture)
The Future of the Public School (for Architecture) New York
December 16, 2009
7:30 PM
Van Alen Institute
30 West 22nd Street, 6th Floor, NY, NY
Refreshments will be served.
Looking forward to seeing you. Please let other interested parties know about this event.
Class link below:
http://nyc.thepublicschool.org/class/1793
15 Dec 2009 1:07PM
Hey guys - looks like this class already happened - anyone interested in continuing this discussion with your friends in Philly? Related class proposal here: http://philly.thepublicschool.org/class/2152
25 Feb 2010 9:07PM