“I’ll tell you what it won’t be like,” said Brand in a moment of clarity, “a huge disparity between rich and poor, where 300 Americans have the same amount of wealth as the 85 million poorest Americans, where there is an exploited and underserved underclass that are being continually ignored and where welfare is slashed while Cameron and Osborne go to court to defend the rights of bankers to continue to receive their bonuses. This has to be addressed.”
Author: alternativeartcollege
this is a project to show that non profit education facilities can develop an education with a decent intellectual capacity. lets question why fees need to be increased ? lets develop a form that can challenge this.
A threat to universities?
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/21/alternative-art-schools-threaten-universities
Emily Pringle, Tate’s head of learning practice and research policy, says “it would not be a great leap” for the museum to provide something akin to an art school programme. “It is really troubling to us who’s in a position to be studying art,” she says. “There’s a question whether big cultural organisations like Tate or the Barbican could themselves provide a space where [emerging artists] could come together in the way that Open School East works.”
The Guardian p38 today have talked about the threat of ‘Alternatives’ towards HE institutions. their main example was the Open School East which the Alternative Art College has recently written a segment on: https://alternativeartcollege.co.uk/2013/09/27/open-school-east-a-radical-curriculum/
I think the AAC is very aware that the space was creating a radical curriculum but not quite a radical pedagogy, It is important to point out that the former library space, the Open School East occupies, is commissioned and funded by the Barbican and Create London. The project is also supported by the Legacy Trust UK and the London Borough of Hackney. Take that as you will.
OSE is a great example of a space that can emerge from the system as well as mirror the system, is it a threat to universities? Is it even an ‘alternative’? recuperation at its most affluent maybe the answer.
Reading group first meeting
Where: G3, Laurie Grove Baths, New Cross which is:
New Cross and New Cross Gate stations (zone 2), on the main rail network and London Overground.
On major bus routes including 21, 36, 53, 136, 171, 172, 177, 225, 321, 343, 436, 453.
If your are interested please contact us and we will add you to the mailing lists.
The first book will be The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes by Jonathan Rose.
Meeting 1: 7th November 2013, 7 pm
https://alternativeartcollege.co.uk/reading-group/ readings here
AAC Reading Group
In its broadest form this group is to read and discuss practice and theory across Learning and politics, across literature, non-fiction, and theory, Some loose notes/minutes will be taken and posted to this page and a list of books/articles refereed to in the meeting will be written down and post as well.
When: We’ll meet fortnightly starting at the beginning of November
Where: New Cross (TBC)
More to be announced soon,
please look at the reading group page for the PDFs, dates and where we will be meeting.
If your are interested please contact us and we will add you to the mailing lists. 
The first book will be The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes by Jonathan Rose.
Open School east: a radical curriculum
Situated in a community hall in Haggerston, East London, the AAC attended the first Open School East public programme event.
What is Open School East?
It is important to point out that the former library space, the Open School East occupies, is commissioned and funded by the Barbican and Create London. The project is also supported by the Legacy Trust UK and the London Borough of Hackney. Take that as you will.
Open School East – Art and Society
The event was chaired by Anna Colin a co-founder of the space. In regards to the OSE she stated, “it is a re-opening of public space to learn and exchange in the former library.” This free, art, ‘learning environment’ is focused around improvisation, collection, self-direction in a context un-burdened from the academic practice of accreditation and awards.
The production of OSE was highlighted in reference to the Arts and Social context programme run at the Dartington College of Arts (1978 – 85).The example Anna Colin used was of students doing work experience, in contexts like a fish and chip shop, where art is not apparent, to discuss limits of participation and collective working. The innovative idea of the course was to produce a generalist artist-designer, capable of responding to the unpredictable creative challenges that arise in a community setting.
Elena Crippa the first of the four panelists focused on historical accounts of the changes in art and arts relation to education. She defined 3 key terms that exist historically; ‘experiment’, ‘radical’ and ‘discursive’. She highlighted a shift from experimenting specifically with visual arts to questioning of society and existence. Moving on to radical pedagogies, Elena discussed Paulo Feriere and questioned how, the artist in a community project or education workshop, has to be wary of becoming “the colonizer”. The purpose of this was to define the ‘radical’ and ‘experimental’, as two ways of doing, two distinct possibilities, that should not be confused.
Alistair Hudson (deputy director, Grizedale Arts), the second panelist, highlighted the life span and production of the Grizedale Arts Centre. The space is seen by for many as a resource, which is for and of the community of Coniston, the Lake District. The building is the original site of John Ruskin’s institute, where Ruskin used art as a tool to teach and learn with, rather than as a subject or discipline. Historical John Ruskin’s institute was involved in many community based projects such as building a road with students in Oxfordshire, one of who was Oscar Wilde, to prevent the spread of cholera. Alistair defined the Grizedale Arts Centers relationship to art, as an ordinary item in ordinary life, habitual, rather than rarefied and or autonomous. Using the creative tools for use rather than mainstream market values.
The Third panelist, Janna Graham (projects curator, Serpentine Gallery), discussed the development of the Centre for Possible Studies. Janna mentioned how the ‘banking’ concept is processes of ‘colonialism’ or the innkeeper to a neo-liberal ideology.
Ahmet Öğüt (artist and initiator of The Silent University) was the last panelist. Ahmet took us through the project Silent University, which can be seen as a ‘semi-autonomous’ space for migrants and asylum seekers to utilise unrecognised voices to express unacknowledged knowledge.. The school allows a platform for individuals and collectives to share and exchange. The autonomous functionality of this space needs to parasitically be attached to an arts or cultural organisation to survive. So it also can be a tool for those involved to navigate their surroundings.
The first question here is, what are they defining as ‘public’ space and can ‘public’ space become available if its commissioned for an associate group of artists to ‘engage’ with the local community. The placement of 13 artists in residence does spark the imagination and produce reality TV connotations, I’m an Artist get me out of here!’ On a serious note, if we were to see the artist as an agitator or a catalyst to produce conversations, our first issue is how ‘public’ will this space be and who’s ‘public’ is it defined by? How does a barbican/create commission relate to this environment, can it be relevant to the local community?
Each talk was interesting but only gave 4 accounts of separate interactions and did not allow time to have a discussion of how they related to the OSE or others. The format was very didactic and if more time was available for discussion it would have been better. I think the AAC was very aware that the space was creating a radical curriculum but not quite a radical pedagogy.
It still boils down to similar issues of access and engagement and how we create structures that mirror capital or neo-liberal forms. The talk, format and structure epitomised the recouped format of the ‘alternative learning space’ it adheres the same format as any other institution but try’s to talk its way into being something else.
Open School East
Thursday 26 September, 2-5pm
Community Hall
Art, School, Society
photo credit: Owen Watson
‘Art, School, Society’ is Open School East’s inaugural public discussion. This roundtable gathers artists, curators and practitioners who are invested in researching and developing alternatives forms of education, artistic and otherwise. The event will include presentations of ongoing and forthcoming projects, considerations on access and usefulness, and speculations about the future of self-organized schools and their relationship to society.
Open School East
Old Rose Lipman Library
43 De Beauvoir Rd
London N1 5SQ
Who’s Neologism is it Anyway?
Having recently attended the Critical Pedagogies Symposium at the University of Edinburgh, the Alternative Art College has learnt a few new words and is prepared for its latest exploits. The two main topics of the day were radical alternatives to the marketisation of education and decolonising practices within education. During the day there was two longer lectures, the first from Heidi Safia Mirza entitled Decolonizing Pedagogies and the second by Joyce Canaan entitled Building alternatives to the neoliberal university. As well as this there was a roundtable discussion on the subject of Education, Intersectionality and Social Change. Participants included Heidi Safia Mirza, Arethea Phiri, Janine Bradbury, Michelle Keown and Mike Shaw. Apart from the main attractions there was one panel that caught this AAC member’s attention. The panel was entitled: Educate, Agitate, Organise.
The first point of interest was Camila Camacho’s report on the marketization of education in Chile. As a student of education at the University of Chile, and a teacher in a public state secondary school in Santiago, she gave us a window into the fight against the privatisation of education. Since the 1980’s Chile’s higher education institutions have been constitutionally regulated but a shift in power towards municipal control has allowed market forces to enter the education system. As a result de-centralisation and fragmentation are occurring. The Chilean education system is currently divided into three; municipal schools, private ‘state’ sponsored schools and wholly private schools. Within municipal schools a lack of infrastructure improvements, and the rigid nature of the educational system, has meant the level of schooling one receives distorts the future of the individual. A series of occupations in 2011, have attempted to recast education, as not just a tool for social reproduction, but as Camila states, to create a space for teachers and students to be ‘happy and free’. We can’t argue with that.
Stephanie Spoto’s paper, reminded us of the anxiety of being an anarchist teacher in a state institution. It was a relief to hear an open discussion about the contradictions of being an anarchist in this position. The question that needs asking is, how much autonomy does the university offer? As the learner straddles the divide between the student and the customer, are teachers the pimps of the education system? Or can we avoid the commodification of radical theories of equality, making them into more than just theories.
Finally Fred Garnett’s presentation left us in awe. Through the melee of slides there was a new word for the AAC’s vocabulary, heutagogy. If you don’t know it, a quick read of the wikipedia page will fill you in. It certainly seems like something the Alternative Art College has been striving for, even if we didn’t know what the word was. Fred Garnet is involved with the project wikiquals. It is true, as Fred states, we don’t spontaneously learn from content delivery – without failing to point out that this is all a MOOC is. His description of US ‘Ivy League’ College’s use of these forums is insightful. As forms for globalising perspectives of knowledge, they are the newest strategy for western universities to continue their colonisation of global education formations. They certainly don’t resist the status quo of orientation to western centric systems of knowing. What is required from offline and online education resources is a space for epistemic cognition, allowing for emergent and diverse counter formations. Or heutagogy, we think. A learning commons perhaps. This certainly rings true with us at the AAC.
Manual Labour: Making and Making-do Starts Today
THE EVENT
Over the course of six days, between 27 August and 1 September 2013, a particular but varied array of practitioners will occupy the window space at 289 Railway Arches, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9HA to perform and demonstrate their skills.
Critical Pedagogies: Equality and Diversity in a Changing Institution
Interdisciplinary Symposium at the University of Edinburgh, 6th Sept 2013
Keynote speakers:
Professor Heidi Safia Mirza
(Professor of Race, Faith and Culture, Goldsmiths College, University of London)
Professor Joyce Canaan
(Professor of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Birmingham City University)
Alternative Art College 