Amal Alhaag, Ayesha Ghanchi, Maria Guggenbichler
Learning Place, FORMER WEST: Documents, Constellation, Prospects, Berlijn, 18–24 maart 2013, foto: Ernie Buts
On Tuesday 18 July 2017 from 13 till 16 hrs, as part of the BAK Summer School: Art in a Time of Interregnum, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht hosts an open workshop titled “Education and Social Justice: A Workshop About John Dewey’s Methodologies” by Dr. Ayesha Ghanchi with Amal Alhaag and Maria Guggenbichler. Through exploring the philosophy and methods of educationist John Dewey, this workshop examines how cultural and art education can mobilize social justice.
The workshop departs from the general understanding that culture and cultural practices can cultivate counter-hegemonic processes. For instance, practices of “pacifist invasions” (Yasser Elhariry), from within, translate, denature, corrupt, and bastardize the monolithic social formations of Western modernity’s great divides along the segregating lines of class, religion, race, sex, gender, ability, etc. In this workshop, we question: What are our practices of transgression, in, outside, and beyond the art institution? How does our engagement with art and cultural learning reproduce our “pacifist invasions,” transgressions, and hegemonic rebellions? How do we share them and pass them on? In the words of bell hooks, how can we “teach to transgress?”
Dewey’s education theory is highly relevant to cultural education and practices, as it is based on encouraging critical and divergent thinking, and questioning the cultural context of learning, whether on a rural farm or in an art institution. His ideas have heavily influenced the field of critical pedagogy, in particular the Reggio Emilia learning approach that was developed in the 1930s by a rural Italian community who wanted to create an education system for their children that would teach critical thinking skills and knowledge of their community so as to challenge the rising fascism of Mussolini. It has since influenced artist-educators who aim to interrogate power imbalances in the institution and encourage dialogue around identity.
During “Education and Social Justice: A Workshop About John Dewey’s Methodologies,” participants will look into Dewey’s philosophy of education and society, identifying how it relates to the fields of radical education practices, and artistic and radical pedagogies. The workshop includes artistic, multi-sensory, and activity-based learning methods.
The workshop takes place at BAK, Utrecht (Lange Nieuwstraat 4). Space is limited. To reserve a spot, please email the BAK Summer School: Art in a Time of Interregnum organizer Whitney Stark at whitney@bak-utrecht.nl.
15 februari 2023, 10.00-18.00
A series of practical publishing workshops hosted by an active squat and anarchist social center in Amsterdam and organized by the Bookbinding Studio of Sandberg Instituut/Rietveld Academy and Lila Athanasiadou.
Community Portal
4 februari 2023, 13.00-18.00
Using the sancocho (a pan-Latin American soup with no fixed recipe) as a tool for research and encounter, Mercado Lourdes (Bogotá, Colombia) will host and organize a series of field meals. These events activate and connect the multiple affects that have resulted from ongoing research with local producers into the biodiversity of the territory.
Community Portal
16 december 2022, 15.00-17.00
In all continents, people have built matriarchal cosmologies sustained by complex rituals. In the advent of main modern religions and after centuries of colonizing invasions, the goddesses of antiquity were suppressed by the patriarchal structures that consolidated our era. However, they found ways to speak to us in the language of patterns, melodies, and poems. This workshop uses the voice as a method to reveal the presence of goddesses.
Community Portal
27 januari, 18.30–29 januari, 21.00 2023
During these sessions—part of the bASIC aCTIVIST kITCHEN (b.a.k.) program in collaboration with Berend Bombarius, De Voorkamer and BAK, basis voor actuele kunst—we want to collectively explore the topic of setting up community kitchens. Different strategies, tools, methodologies, and contexts are explored to learn more about the challenges and opportunities in the practices and theories of community kitchens.
Community Portal
