Initated by artists Jon Rubin, The Independent School of Art is an experimental art school that operates without external resources, accreditation, or a physical site. Run solely through the labor and efforts of its participants, the school fosters an action-based approach to college-level arts education, a real-world model where students are challenged to determine and create their own artistic realities. The school’s barter-based tuition system makes explicit the social contract between students and teachers and honors their collective labor as a vital form of cultural production. Locating nomadically, the school prioritizes social over physical architecture, and asks all involved to imagine how their practice might intersect and respond to a larger set of physical situations and cultural possibilities.
The ISA complements its curricular offerings with student and faculty designed exhibitions, fundraisers, lectures, grants, publications and now a play. These multi-disciplinary public actions are a central part of the school’s pedagogy, and serve a vital function by engaging the students in the direct creation of public culture. The ISA is designed for continual reinvention and experimentation, changing each season to reflect the ambitions, personalities and abilities of those in its community.
http://www.independentschoolofart.org/
Posted by delpesco at August 21, 2006 09:54 AM