Grounded in empirical research, Alternative Pedagogical Spaces: From Utopia to Institutionalization is a critical inquiry into the establishment, development, and transformation of alternative pedagogical and social spaces. Written by Anna Colin, a former director and co-founder of Open School East, an independent art school and community space founded in London in 2013, this essay-length book explores the instituting factors, organizational life cycles, and alignments and misalignments between values and practices that permeate such a project.
The essay delves into the qualities and prerequisites for what Colin calls “multi-public educational organizations.” It also scrutinizes the hurdles associated with the effort to remain alternative, including processes of habituation, temptation or pressure to scale up, ethos-bending fundraising exercises, and long tenure, as well as the plain desire for stability and sustainability.
Alternative Pedagogical Spaces proposes where to look for a reconceptualization of waiting, slowness, and longevity, and asks how these ideas may benefit cultural practice and the design of future institutions (or the redesign of existing ones). Overriding the common assumption that success equals longevity, the author searches for institutional models that resist chrononormativity, drawing from social movements, psychotherapy, biology, and permaculture.
Named after a chapter in Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider, Scratching the Surface presents writing from scholars, historians, theorists, and curators concerned with educational strategies following the legacies of feminism, civil rights struggles, and decolonisation. The series addresses the issues encountered by pedagogues (as a revaluated term) working in visual arts, specifically—a field often unquestioningly presumed as progressive. Scratching the Surface is co-published with the Villa Arson in Nice and edited by Sophie Orlando (scientific editor) and Alice Dusapin.
Interviews: Catherine Queloz