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about intertwining hi/stories

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Intertwining HiStories is a Cluster project by partners in the network Another Roadmap for Arts Education in Maseru, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Lubumbashi, Nyanza, Vienna, Kampala/Namulanda and Geneva/Zurich. Between June 2016 and July 2018, the working groups will study histories of arts education and their global overlapping within particular case studies (“stories”). Our general research interest is: What does the intertwining of these stories mean for practices of education through and on the arts? The cluster’s work addresses

  1. the transfer of ‘art’ and ‘education’ from Europe to the Global South within the colonial context, the appropriation and localizing of concepts
  2. models of critical pedagogy in arts education and their international circulation, focusing mainly on the 1970s
  3. the reactivation of historical experiences for the purpose of current practice

Intertwining HiStories asks e.g.: What does it mean that texts of the art education movement in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th century were being a main reference for development of school art education in China, despite the fact that China had a different system of aesthetic, art creation and education? (Archival research in China, Japan, Germany by Yuk Lin Cheng, Senior Teaching Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Education). What does it mean for studying arts in Uganda today, that the vision of “authentic” African art fostered in the foundation of the Art School relied on European fascinations for arts from West Africa?(Archival and interview/focus group based research in Uganda and UK by artist researcher Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa). What is the reason why the Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire lived in Geneva for 10 years, and yet there is barely any work about his life and works in Switzerland, whilst at the same time his writings are highly en vogue as a reference in the European art scene? (Archival research and pedagogical-artistic projects in Geneva and Zurich by microsillons, Carmen Mörsch and Nora Landkammer).

The merit of bringing these HiStories together is to make the connections between these seemingly unrelated historical events known in the field of arts education and thereby contribute to a reflective understanding, and practice, of educating through and in the arts in a global context. Methodologically, the local research actions will use a trans-disciplinary triangulation of archive research, oral history (narrative interviews) and arts based research, combining research with participatory practices. The project will lead to a “Shaking Histories festival”, learning units for the training of teachers and museum educators, practical artistic-pedagogical projects as well as a travelling exhibition.

The project is carried out with the support of Stiftung Mercator Schweiz, Allianz Kulturstiftung, Art EDU Stiftung and Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK.