Considering the changing place of education in the artistic context, from the s to today, and drawing on diverse exhibition and publishing practices, the discussion foregrounds the need for, and the potential of, intergenerational, trans-disciplinary learning. The three of you began talking about education within institutions, and the need to evaluate and rethink how it is positioned.
Specifically, the compartmentalization of educational work came up, or how education might be decompartmentalized. Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca FV : Perhaps this will be the first of a series of conversations with members of the editorial board addressing areas of interest that will be on the table for the next few years.
To begin with education feels like a significant statement. As a starting point, could we speak to the idea of de compartmentalization from your respective positions?
Maria, I think you introduced the term? MB : Sure. To start with, there is still a general conception that education exclusively deals with schools, children, young people. This is strange when we consider how art and education are closely linked and the so-called educational turn of the mids. Everyone assumes that art is linked with education and that art can be educational, but within arts organizations, the recognition of artist-educators has been a long struggle.
This became clear to me during the Berlin Biennale I worked on in One way to rethink education and its role in institutions is to approach it intergenerationally, which began back in the s. Then, there was at least some reflection and effort made in and by western institutions to have children, parents, sometimes also grandparents, in the same space, inhabiting art venues with free play, or enabling women to hold academic discussions by providing childcare.
