Posted: 23.03.2010
IN AND OUT OF EDUCATION… What Can We Teach Nowadays
The disputed crisis of art education has been widely scrutinized, especially in Europe, over the last decade. Little debated, arts education in Lebanon needs careful examination and questioning keeping in mind the specificities of the local context. Despite several art degree-granting universities in Lebanon, the gap between what is being taught in academia and what is actually being practiced within the contemporary art scene is widening. However, this terrain hosts a continuous development of informal and experimental learning platforms: the city of Beirut is a sphere in which students, artists and professionals meet and exchange ideas in a constant process of everyday education. Individuals debate and seek new knowledge in relation to one another and within their surroundings. The theme ‘In and Out of Education … What Can We Teach Nowadays’ looks at the possibilities of reinventing and enhancing the specific ‘in and out’ situation of informal arts education in relation to Beirut. This theme also underlies an attempt to set up a new educational programme through Ashkal Alwan for Contemporary Arts – The Home Works Academy – which will use the city of Beirut and its wider context as its campus, its research topic, its platform and again the site from which ideas will sprout.
‘In and Out of Education…’ poses the question of how to develop an experiential approach to arts education, which not only offers a challenging and creative space within society but also responds to the city’s urgent questions and uses its wider context as its main curriculum. As part of this theme Ashkal Alwan will invite artists, thinkers and collectives who have actively engaged with artistic research and education to critically reflect on the question ‘What Can We Teach Nowadays’ .