Program

Symposia Overview

In 2005, the Anaphiel Foundation sponsored a series of seven symposia on the future of arts education and the fundamental issues in founding a truly 21st century school of the arts. The symposia were organized and moderated by Steven Henry Madoff, Senior Critic at Yale University’s School of Art and former Executive Editor of ARTnews magazine, and Bruce W. Ferguson, Director of Exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario and former Dean of Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Over 80 prominent international artists, architects, educators, designers, writers, curators, institution directors, theorists, and technologists participated in the programs, which took place at the Aspen Institute in Aspen, Colorado, in New York, at the Tate Gallery in London, and in the Design District in Miami. The symposia covered a broad range of issues and were designed to help define the nascent Institute, from the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary arts’ education to specific curricula and pedagogical approaches to faculty and student recruitment and to architecture and facility requirements.

The symposia included the following subjects: separate sessions for curricula for the new arts school in the fields of performance, image and object, and text; “Preparing the Artist: Goals for a New Art School in the 21st Century,” which addressed issues of academic, technical, and professional preparation; “The Impact of the New Technologies on Teaching at the New Arts School,” discussing what technologies are key to the new school, with particular consideration of remote learning capabilities; “Place: What is the Architecture of a New Arts School,” in which leading architects discuss the creation of the physical plan and ideas about the site for the new school; “Rethinking Arts Education for the 21st Century,” on the philosophy of education.