UTAC: CALL FOR STUDENT RUN WORKSHOPS AND ARTWORKS

The University of Toronto Art Centre art lounge is now accepting submissions for the Fall 2009 exhibition: Rochdale College

All Ontario students are invited to submit class proposals.

What is Rochdale College? Rochdale College is an experiment in education, cooperative living, and juvenocracy. It opened in 1968, at the corner of Huron and Bloor Streets, to 850 students who were Toronto’s young new radicals in participatory democracy, ready to rethink pedagogy and redesign the institution. Rochdale was as buoyed by late sixties counterculture revolution as it was burdened by its free spirits and drug culture. With the clampdown on the hippie haven of Yorkville in 1969, Rochdale’s population more than doubled with squatters, blurring the line between educational cooperative and flophouse, and causing the experiment to be shut down in 1975.

The exhibition does not claim to present a complete historical portrait of Rochdale, but instead prepares a historical collision in which Rochdale never stopped. The fragments of the wreckage will allow us to recontextualize Rochdale in all its forms: is Rochdale still relevant? Was it a failure? What is the possibility or value of alternative education? What does counterculture mean to you today? While the class can be on any subject, entrants should include a brief statement explaining how their class proposal relates to the ideas implied by the exhibition.

Classes are an important part of the exhibition in keeping with the emphasis on participatory education. We are not looking for experts to coordinate classes. All that is required is openness and a willingness to participate. Classes can be proposed on any topic and approached through a wide range of styles: from the most activist urgency to the most irreverent, absurd or exploratory style.


How to Submit

All submissions must indicate the artist’s name, institution, phone and email contact. Submissions must include a statement outlining how the proposed class touches upon the ideas above. Please forward entries under the title “Rochdale College submission” to sunny.kerr@utoronto.ca. NEW Deadline: July 29, 2009.


Criteria

An art lounge education committee of students and staff will choose the classes for the exhibition. The following criteria will be applied: how well the project speaks to a current condition, meets a perceived level of artistic and/or curatorial merit, and falls within UTAC’s ability to host appropriately.


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Call for artworks


The University of Toronto Art Centre art lounge is now accepting submissions for the Fall 2009 exhibition: Rochdale College
All Ontario students are invited to submit art works as part of an exhibition entitled Rochdale College that will participate in Nuit Blanche 2009.

The exhibition does not claim to present a complete historical portrait of Rochdale, but instead prepares a historical collision in which Rochdale never stopped. The fragments of the wreckage will allow us to recontextualize Rochdale in all its forms: is Rochdale still relevant? Was it a failure? What is the possibility or value of alternative education? What does counterculture mean to you today? Experimental pedagogy is an important part of the exhibition in keeping with Rochdale’s emphasis on participatory education, as are reevaluations of failure and the role of counterculture. Entrants should include a brief statement explaining how their work relates to these questions and strategies.

How to Submit

All submissions must indicate the artist’s name, institution, phone and email contact and a maximum 2 megabyte jpeg. Submissions must also include a statement outlining how the project explores the ideas above. Please forward entries under the title “Rochdale College submission” to sunny.kerr@utoronto.ca. NEW Deadline: July 29th, 2009.

Criteria

An art lounge curatorial committee will choose the works for the exhibition. The following criteria will be applied: how well the project speaks to a current condition, meets a perceived level of artistic merit, and falls within UTAC’s ability to host appropriately.

About the University of Toronto Art Centre art lounge:
Located at the University of Toronto, St. George Campus, at 15 King’s College Circle, UTAC’s mission is to offer a space where young artists can show and discuss their work in an energetic, original and inclusive way. The art lounge student exhibition program aims both to encourage rigorous aesthetic exploration and to reflect the diverse practices in student visual art. The art lounge accepts proposals from student artists to exhibit their own work, and curators to exhibit the work of other students; we also collaborate with U of T clubs and divisions on open call juried or curated student shows - and with faculty on projects that use the lounge and adjacent spaces.

Sunny Kerr
Student and Education Program Coordinator
University of Toronto Art Centre
15 King's College Circle
Toronto, ON M5S 3H7
416-946-3029