Discussion Forum:

Critical Art & Pedagogical Practices/ Widening Participation
As part of the Showing: Expectations collaborative arts project

Wednesday 31st October
5:30pm – 7.00pm
Patrick Studios, St. Mary’s Lane, Leeds LS9 7EH
 

Tickets aren’t needed and the event is free, but space is limited so you are advised to arrive early.
 
Participants include:
Tim Brennan (Programme Leader - MA Curating: Art, Design, Media & Culture University of Sunderland) http://curationism.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/
Dinah Clarke (Leeds City Council and Leeds initiative, supporting policy development within the cultural industries)
Karen Watson (Artistic Director, East Street Arts) http://www.esaweb.org.uk/
Dr Sue Wilks (independent artist/researcher/educator) http://www.feda.co.uk/
Leonor da Silva (PhD student in Fine Art Practice at the University of Leeds, School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies). 
Chair: Andrew Warstat (PhD student in Fine Art Practice at the University of Leeds, School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies)
 

The project, Showing: Expectations, was conceived out of a concern to understand and articulate the relations between critical art practice and curatorial and educational policies. The project takes as its starting point the view that current artistic practice needs to be both rigorously theorised and practically engaged in social/political realities.
 

When community groups are involved in a collaborative arts project, what are the power relations? Who defines/sanctions/validates the work? Who is ‘fit’ to curate? The panel will provide a discussion forum for people interested in contemporary concerns about the interaction between artists, teachers, curators, audiences and communities.
 

Showing: Expectations focuses on how debates around widening participation and the integration of community groups in cultural production, often assumes closed or hierarchical networks for the production and consumption of art. The project examines how teaching and learning are used to create identities that can empower, but also alienate and exclude. Through a structured, but open-ended invitation to community groups, Showing: Expectations also challenges assumptions about how collaborative art is made and exhibited.
 

The evening’s discussion plays a part in this curatorial endeavour itself and presents another aspect of the project’s work to provoke dialogue and engage critical reflection.
 

The discussion will address:
 

What it means for an art practice to be critical, theoretical and practical in relation to the communities that produce it.
What role pedagogic practices have in both creating and restricting the production of art and artists.
How the discourse of ‘widening participation’ constructs expectations about what it means to train to ‘be an artist’.
How curatorial practices can enable alternative models of artistic production.
 

Showing: Expectations runs until 10 November with associated events and discussions.