Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Hart House, University of Toronto

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Past Exhibitions

Extra-Curricular: Between Art & Pedagogy

Part I. Between Institutions (February 15 – 20, 2010)
Free Admission
Please visit the project website for more information: www.extra-curricular.info

Previous installation of Xu Tan's Keywords School, Guangzhou Museum of Art, 2008.
Photo courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space

Exhibition:
Xu Tan, Keywords School: February 15-20, 2010
Reception: February 17, 5-7pm
Keywords School Classes: February 15, 16, 18, 19, and 20; 2-4 pm

Hart House Reading Room, University of Toronto
Open to the public during Hart House regular hours

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Conference:
Keynote Lecture by Carmen Mörsch
Tuesday February 16, 7-8:30 pm

Hart House Debates Room, University of Toronto
Open to the public

"extra-curatorial? documenta 12 education and its research between autonomy and assignment"

Carmen Mörsch is the Art Director of the Institute for Art Education (Zurich). She will give an overview of the Documenta 12 Education Programme, its advisory board and research projects. Discussing the development of the Documenta 12 Education books, the talk will touch on the project’s achievements and challenges.

Extra-Curricular Panel Discussions: February 17-18, 2010
Registration required for panel discussions

Closing Reception: February 18, 2010; 5-7pm
Toronto Free Gallery, 1277 Bloor Street West

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Extra-Curricular: Between Art & Pedagogy is organized and curated by Maiko Tanaka, Curator-in-Residence, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery.

Extra-curricular: Between Art & Pedagogy, is an international conference and curatorial project exploring the relationship between art, education, audience development, and activism. The conference will take place in two parts: I. Between Institutions (February 15–20, 2010) and II. Beyond Institutions (March 8–11, 2010). It will be accompanied by special projects, installations, workshops, and residencies with internationally renowned artists, educators, and researchers, with keynote guests Annette Krauss (Utrecht, Netherlands), Xu Tan (Guangzhou, China), and Carmen Mörsch (Zurich, Switzerland). Collaborating organizations include Gendai Gallery (Toronto), Gallery TPW (Toronto), Ontario Association of Art Galleries, Vitamin Creative Space (Guangzhou, China), and Toronto Free Gallery.

The conference includes art installations by Xu Tan and Adrian Blackwell, as well as performances, workshops, and film screenings at Hart House and off-site locations. Guangzhou-based artist Xu Tan will be developing a new phase of his ongoing participatory project Keywords School, scheduled to take place during Part I: Between Institutions. His project will be followed by an experimental architectural installation, Model for a Public Space (Speaker), produced by Toronto-based architect and artist Adrian Blackwell. The latter project will function as a site for the roundtable discussions and presentations for Part II: Beyond Institutions, and continues as a platform for open-ended public forums by student and community groups through to the end of March 2010. Part II also takes place in conjunction with Utrecht-based artist Annette Krauss's Visiting Artist Residency at the JMB Gallery.

To register for Part I, send an email to info@extra-curricular.info with your full name, organization/position, phone number and sessions you plan to attend.

Contact:

Maiko Tanaka
JMB Gallery, Curator-in-Residence
maikotanaka@rogers.com
416-520-2855

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Extra-Curricular: Between Art & Pedagogy

Part 2. Beyond Institutions (March 1 – 31, 2010)
Organized and curated by Maiko Tanaka
Please visit the project website for more information: www.extra-curricular.info

Adrian Blackwell, Research collage for Model for a Public Space [knot], 2010. Image courtesy of the artist.

The Justina M. presents extra-curricular: between art & pedagogy part 2, a curatorial project and international conference exploring the relationship between art, education, research and activism

Exhibition: March 1-31, 2010
Adrian Blackwell, Model for a public space, [knot], 2010
Reception: March 4, 2010, 5-7pm

Hart House Reading Room, University of Toronto
Open to the public during Hart House regular hours

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Conference: March 8-13, 2010
Opening Keynote Lecture: March 8, 7-8:30pm, Annette Krauss (Music Room, Hart House)
Discussions, Workshops, and Events: March 9-12
Closing Screening & Discussion: Read the Masks. Tradition is not given. (Gallery TPW)

All programs are FREE and open to the public. Registration is required for discussions and workshops.

EXHIBITION:

Toronto artist/architect Adrian Blackwell presents a new instance of Model for a public space, a site-specific installation concerned with the inevitably knotted nature of public discourses, how they intertwine, affect, antagonize, fold over themselves, and flee in different directions.

Consisting of a set of concentric bleachers Model for a public space [knot] provides singular locations for divergent perspectives while allowing a large number of people to sit and talk comfortably in close proximity to one another. The work considers both senses of the word ‘model’. It is at once a projective idea about how people relate to one another and a temporary maquette. It acts as both an idea or diagram, and a material object, an experiment in the relation between form and social engagement.

The knotted structure is open for daily activity outside of scheduled programs. It can also be booked by individuals or groups interested in engaging in non-hierarchical discussion for up to three hours. (Booking information and schedules can be obtained by contacting Maiko Tanaka aT info@extra-curricular.info

In addition to Special Programming organized by Adrian Blackwell and Christine Shaw (see extra-curricular.info), MPS [knot] is also the site for various discussions taking place during the second phase of the extra-curricular conference.

Petra Bauer and Annette Krauss, still from film Read the Masks. Tradition is Not Given, 2009. Image courtesy of Annette Krauss

CONFERENCE:

Following the vigorous and contentious proceedings that took place during extracurricular: part 1. between institutions in February, this second part of the conference, titled beyond institutions (March 8–13, 2010), is structured as a meeting of collectives, artists, and activists working on creative initiatives in a variety of locations using explicitly pedagogical models, formats, and tools in their work. Although diverse in background, the invited groups carry common points of reference and characteristics: investigating new formats for knowledge production with critical analysis of power relations at play; investing in local communities; cultivating learning environments that produce new social relations; and making these processes and outcomes public.

The conference features representatives from collectives including the Center for Urban Pedagogy (NYC), colourschool (Vancouver), Dodolab (Waterloo, Canada), La Lleca (Mexico City), Radical Education Research Collective (RERC) (Toronto), The Pinky Show (Honolulu, Hawaii), Toronto School of Creativity and Inquiry, and Ultra-Red (London, UK). The Justina M. Barnicke Gallery’s International Artist-in-Residence, Annette Krauss (Utrecht, Netherlands), will present the opening keynote lecture "Towards Critical Links Between Art, Education and Activism" to kick-start the proceedings. Collaborating organizations for part 2 include Gallery TPW (Toronto), The Centre for Media and Culture in Education (CMCE), REV-, and Toronto Free Gallery.

The setting of the “Reading Room,” an open student space inside Hart House, provides a context for discourses that can potentially be mobilized to support (or diverge from) the “main curricula” of the larger educational institution. Roundtable discussions will take place in Adrian Blackwell's anti-hierarchical seating structure, Model for a public space [knot], while public workshops, a book launch, and film screening, will be held in various rooms in Hart House and off-site locations.

For the full conference schedule and descriptions, please visit http://extra-curricular.info

Email info@extra-curricular.info to register for roundtable discussions and workshops with your full name and sessions you wish to attend.

extra-curricular: between art and pedagogy is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Hal Jackman Foundation, Ontario Association of Art Galleries with the Department of Canadian Heritage, Ontario Arts Council and the Centre for the Study of the United States at the Munk Centre for International Studies.