“LEAVE THE COMMUNITY ALONE” BECOMES SEMINAR AT THE SCHOOL OF MAKING THINKING

Isabella Indolfi (HRA ‘23) will lead an online seminar, “Leave the Community Alone: Critical Perspectives on Community Art” through The School of Making Thinking. Participants will examine the merits and pitfalls of art projects that activate a critical exchange between local communities and artists, learning to identify the problematic power dynamics of representation.

Drawing on scholars like Hal Foster, Claire Bishop, Grant Kester and Miwon Kwon, participants will question the positionality of curators and artists in relation to the communities they work for and with. What does it achieve to identify a “community” when its image is created by another? How do curators and artists, in the role of outsiders, activate dialog with the residents? How do they manage conflicts and antagonism?

“Leave the Community Alone” was first developed as Isabella Indolfi’s thesis for the MA program in Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College, and subsequently presented at the Manchester Metropolitan University of Art (UK), at Residency Unlimited, and at Storm Bookstore in Brooklyn (NY).

Select scholarships and solidarity discounts are available for this seminar. To register, click here.