Paradox Conference 2011 – Cork, Eire
Outside In - The Permeable Art School
Strand - The Art School
The art school gallery is a place that can be described as a meeting of the inside and the outside where artists, students and teachers form an alliance bringing professionals in contact with training professionals. In its way it is permeable whether the gallery is of the fabric of the building or an external space used for this purpose. This workshop explored effective models for leading and managing art school galleries; from the corridor with little budget to the fully staffed white cube space with a budget. We determined the flexibility of the art school gallery and its ability to transform according to the project brief, the economic pressure and the currency of the debate. Participants were invited to share their experiences and develop new ways forward for consideration.
Stephanie James and Helen Baker gave presentations on the art school gallery followed by questions, discussion and time for participants to present further models. The second session brought together these ideas and the group considered new ideas for future art school galleries. Student’s views and ideas were a key factor in the success of the workshop in figuring the ways they do and benefit from gallery events in their education.
Paradox Conference 2013 - Granada, Spain
Paradox, the Fine Art European Forum biannual conference, The Inheritance: Contesting Legacies in Fine Art Practice, Research and Education, examined how the pedagogies and practices of fine art critically evaluate their past. Through keynote addresses and three parallel strands of discussion this theme was developed by papers and other forms of presentation, representing the rich practice and research of the teaching institutions of fine art throughout Europe.
The conference was hosted by the University of Granada and take place at the Parque de las Ciencias, a modern interactive science Museum located near to the historic centre of Granada and the Alhambra.
The three major strands were:
A) Material Matters
B) Viewing Time Based Practice Through Time
C) Challenging Fine Art Pedagogies
How are artists contesting legacies in their art practice and research and how does artistic education implement pedagogies that assimilate both tradition and modernity? How do the Fine Arts practices, research and education add qualitative factors, such as the promotion of social understanding, rapprochement between cultures and a way of understanding the world through art?
Paradox Conference 2015 – Poznan, Poland
As a member of the Steering Group of Paradox I work with 9 other members to hold a conference every two years. In Sept 2015 the conference was titled: Alternative Zones: Uncovering the Official and the Unofficial in Fine Art Practice, Research and Education.
I co-convened Strand B: Politics of Performance with Christina Della Giustina, Professor of Fine Art, HKU University of the Arts Utrecht: The Politics of Performance.
Performance in Poland has a unique history. It was born out of the political situations and the social upheaval in the earlier part of the 20C. Tadeusz Kantor created an underground experimental theatre in Kraków during the German occupation eventually practicing as a performance artist provoking ideas on denial and the disappearance of substance.
This strand set out to explore the artist’s urge to enact: to understand their own work as agency; which is to act and to experiment with space, time and material for the sake of art as agency.
In this strand Poznan was understood and engaged as specific historical stage on which performance and experiment were brought together.
The Strand sought to explore performance through a series of artistic presentations to question, mark, and discuss its value and significance in fine art education and fine art practice through the following tangents:
· Performance as topic: what constitutes a performance?
· Performativity as artistic method: how do we experiment through performance?
· Performance as a research environment: how and where in the curricula at our academies do performances happen? Or not happen?
Questions that were explored:
Which institutional conditions have to be met to perform, discuss, perceive, and realize performance?
What are the effects, the consequences, and the results of experiments in performance for its participants, the academy they take place in, and society at large? Should ‘delivery’ as a teacher and a learner constantly be revised through experimentation to better engage our audiences?
This strand called for participants to contribute to understanding the value of performance in Fine Art education encompassing a broad spectrum, from performance art throughout histories, to diverse performative methodologies in pedagogy. The strand welcomed proposals for live- and recorded performances, presentations of papers, group workshops and other experimental and performative formats.
The participants presenting in Strand B were:
Mike O’Kelly, Maria Martinez, Andy Weir, Holly Greenberg, Karolina Kubik, Kevin Atherton, Dr Sophia Lycouris, Alec Shepley, Roddy Hunter, Dr Zuzanna Sadowa, Neil Mulholland and Dan Brown, Zofia Nierodznsk, Chris Wildrick.
Paradox Conference 2017 – London, England
September 2017 we held a 2-day conference and 10-day student project in London on the value of diversity; examining the difference in fine art practice, research and education.
It was hosted by Middlesex University and Central St Martins at Conway Hall & the Artworkers’ Guild, London.
I co-facilitated the Strand: Diverse Ethics with Professor Paul Haywood, University of the Arts London.
STRAND B: DIVERSE ETHICS
In this complex and conflict-ridden arena, it has become crucial not only to identify, but also to reconsider the ethical basis and scope of the art education institution, in order to retain its relevance in the society of the future. Teaching ethically and the ‘ethical’ have made it imperative for lecturers to consider different methods. In this strand we intend to investigate how feminist, LGBTQ or culturally diverse approaches to pedagogy and teaching have enhanced the curriculum and the depth of our understanding of cultural production.
ART FUTURE / FUTURE SIGNS: The future of contemporary fine art research and education
The Paradox European Fine Art biennial forum Art Future / Future Signs 2019 Riga
I am delivering a paper at this conference: Give Up and Let’s Partner! In this paper I explore why the Paradigm shifts in contemporary art have reached the art school educational institution but haven’t been easily embedded into the curriculum.
STRAND B: Activating Art Education
Conveners:
Jason E. Bowman, Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Mark O’Kelly, National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland
Carla Repice, Bard Graduate Centre, & The City College of New York, US
Art education at its best, actively promotes a learning culture – which recognises, values and celebrates transformation and social relevance in all new forms of artistic and pedagogical practices.