Claire Bishop (The Graduate Center, Art History)
Paul Ramirez-Jonas (Hunter College, Art)
Tuesdays, 12-3pm at different locations around NYC
Course Number: IDS 81630
PUBLIC SCHOOL is a course designed to encourage the making of, and reflection upon, art outside the gallery. Unlike a conventional CUNY seminar, we will never meet in the classroom, but instead use the five boroughs of New York as our campus—visiting sites, buildings, organizations, individuals, and situations that catalyze critical thinking about the public sphere.
Led by an artist and an art historian, the course will draw upon the rich history of New York as a context for radical artistic production in public space since the 1960s. We will be looking at (and sometimes retracing the steps of) artists who in previous decades took over abandoned buildings, collaborated with city workers, performed in the streets and on the rooftops, and thereby investigated the city’s unspoken codes of behavior.
This post-studio course is designed to encourage the production of art outside the gallery. It is designed primarily for MFA students at the senior colleges, but is also open to students from other disciplines who make a good case for taking it.
Assessment: Two public works (one in your own neighborhood, and one in Times Square) and/or a written contribution to the class assignment.
