Summer Institute 2022
Public Arts Garage: Collaborative Artistic Practices in the Public Space
May 6 to July 8
The “Public Arts Garage” is an intensive interdisciplinary graduate seminar taking place over three distinct periods between May and early July. It includes a joint session with Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Queen's University, Belfast and other partner institutions in Europe; studio work sessions and daily Concordia debrief periods. The seminar encourages you to think across the boundaries of your disciplines.
Faculty members
Concordia University: Louis Patrick Leroux (Professor, English; Professeur titulaire, Études françaises; Associate Dean, Research, Faculty of Arts and Science) and Silvy Panet-Raymond (Professor, Chair, Contemporary Dance).
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar: Alexandra Regan Toland (Professor, Arts and Research, Dean of Studies, Faculty of Art and Design, Director and Speaker, PhD Programme in Art & Design).
Queen’s University Belfast: Eva Urban-Devereux (Senior Research Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice; colleagues in theatre and performance.
Seminar description (3 credits)
The "Public Arts Garage" (PAG) promotes international, interdisciplinary collaboration in topics around art and public space. This graduate seminar is ideal for thinker-doers, research-creators who are keenly interested in moving borders of art-making practices as well as theoretical frameworks in research-creation. PAG encourages students to think across the boundaries of their disciplines by proposing collaborative teaching modules that involve three international partner institutions.
A Garage can be more than a storage space. It can be a repository for tools and ideas, a refuge from the daily routine, a space where creative people come together to enjoy making and tinkering. Embracing this “Garage” spirit, MA and PhD level students, from different disciplines, countries and academic cultures will form tandems and small teams. On-site in their respective locations, they will connect digitally and remotely with their partners to create interdisciplinary projects towards a physical/experimental outcome. The collaborative work can stem from, and further develop students’ existing projects or dissertation work.
Public space has remained a contested terrain of negotiation, of political attention, a site of shape-changing relations between people and systems. Different local contexts reveal specific challenges while also reflecting shared issues across geographical and disciplinary boundaries.
How does/can art in/through public space find new methods to approach critical issues such as hospitality for the uninvited, the refugee, the transient? What dynamic strategies can counter discrimination, conflict and apathy? Can we tinker with tools to rekindle enchantment, to reinvest in enjoyment, to relish in building together?
The aim of “Public Arts Garage” is to foster collaboration and build a community of practice across different disciplines.
Watch our PAG video to learn more.
Schedule
Being on campus for this seminar is key, as this the focus is on public space and how we inhabit them.
- May 6 - Introductions, theoretical concepts and matchmaking
- May 27 (strongly recommended) - Concordia-led seminar (coinciding with Festival Trans-Amériques). Walking through the city and ending at Concordia’s 4th Space
- June 3 - Bauhaus-led seminar (coinciding with Society for Artistic Research Conference)
- June 20 - Queen’s Belfast-led seminar
- July 8 (strongly recommended) - Student presentations and seminar conclusion, held at Concordia’s 4th Space
