Past Exhibitions

Extra-Curricular: Between Art & Pedagogy

Part 2. Beyond Institutions (March 8 – 13, 2010)
Organized and curated by Maiko Tanaka
Free admission

Model for a Public Space [knot], 2010. Photo: Marko Bursac.

Extra-curricular: Between Art & Pedagogy, is an international conference and curatorial project exploring the relationship between art, education, research, and activism. The conference will take place in two parts: I. Between Institutions (February 15–20, 2010) and II. Beyond Institutions (March 8–13, 2010). Collaborating organizations for Part II include Gallery TPW (Toronto), REV- and Western Front, Centre for Media and Culture in Education at OISE, Ontario College of Art & Design, and Toronto Free Gallery. Please visit the project website for more information: www.extra-curricular.info

Exhibition:
Adrian Blackwell, Model for a public space, [knot], 2010
Dates: March 1-31, 2010
Reception: March 4, 2010, 5-7pm
Location: Hart House Reading Room, University of Toronto

Open to the public during Hart House regular hours.

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. Model for a public space [knot] is the site for various discussions taking place during the second phase of the Extra-curricular conference.

Consisting of a set of concentric bleachers MPS [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.

Model for a Public Space [knot] has been generously supported by Hart House, University of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council.

 

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

Conference:
Part II. Beyond Institutions
March 8-13, 2010
Keynote Lecture by Annette Krauss: March 8, 7-8:30pm, (Hart House Reading Room)
Roundtables, 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.

Following the vigorous and contentious proceedings that took place during Extracurricular Part I. 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 radical pedagogical models, formats, and tools in their work. The purpose of this “meeting” is to share, discuss and collectively imagine new, alternative structures for supporting, sustaining and mobilizing pedagogical art practices.  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 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. The conference also features representatives from schools and 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 setting of the “Reading Room,” an open student space inside Hart House, provides a context for discourses that can potentially be mobilized to diverge from or intervene in 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 www.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.